Loess-paleosol sequences at the northern European loess belt in Germany: Distribution, geomorphology and stratigraphy Frank Lehmkuhl * , Joerg Zens, Lydia Krauß, Philipp Schulte, Holger Kels Department of Geography, RWTH Aachen University, Templergraben 55, 52056 Aachen, Germany article info Article history: Received 6 June 2016 Received in revised form 11 October 2016 Accepted 15 October 2016 Keywords: Northern European loess belt Lower Rhine Embayment Northern Harz foreland Loess-paleosol sequences Stratigraphy Geomorphology Weichselian abstract Pleistocene loess and loess derivates are distributed along the mountain front of the Central European Mountain Belt in northern and central Germany. Examples from two regions, the Lower Rhine Embay- ment (LRE) and the Northern foreland of the Harz Mountains (FHM) show that the distribution of loess and the development of loess-paleosol sequences (LPS) are controlled by relief, climate, tectonics, the distance to large river systems, the distance to the Scandinavian ice sheet and the distance to the shelf of the North Sea. In the oceanic LRE higher humidity enhanced the periglacial processes which increased erosion, but also led to preservation in accumulative positions. In contrast, in the more continental FHM the sediments were affected by less intensive periglacial processes and no solifluction can be detected. New loess distribution maps are presented for both key areas, and key sections, especially for the last glacial cycle, are compared and summarized. Both study regions are located in the west e east trending loess belt north of the Central European Mountain belt (in front of the Rhenish Shield ¼ Ardennes-Eifel and Harz Mountains). Finally, a synthesis of typical sediment sequences for both regions is given as an example of paleoenvironmental (landscape) development in northern Central Europe. © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction Loess is one of the most extensively distributed Pleistocene deposits in Central Europe. It is widely spread along the European loess belt, the surroundings of the large river systems, and the sedimentary basins of low mountain ranges (Fig. 1). The thickness varies between decimeters to several tens of meters depending on the distance to the source area and the geomorphological setting. Due to wide distribution, loess-paleosol-sequences (LPS) are the most intensively and extensively studied terrestrial archives used for the reconstruction of environmental and climatic changes of the Last Glaciation(s) in Central Europe. The early stages of detailed loess-paleosol research were focused on the development of individual stratigraphic schemes for every sub region based on pedological and sedimentological properties (e.g., Remy, 1960; Paas, 1962, 1968a,b; Lieberoth, 1963; Sch€ onhals et al.,1964; Rohdenburg and Meyer, 1966; Brunnacker, 1967; Semmel, 1968; Fink et al., 1977; Schirmer, 2000). The early work produced a large number of published loess sections. Some of these localities were later reinvestigated with luminescence dating to establish a chronological framework for phases of loess accu- mulation and soil development (e.g., Frechen, 1992, 1994, 1999; Z€ oller, 1995; Lang et al., 2003; Bibus et al., 2007; Frechen and Schirmer, 2011). More recently, loess research has been focused on the impact of rapid climate oscillations on European continental environments by comparing biological, geochemical and sedimentological proxy data from LPS with variations in Greenland ice core data (e.g., Rousseau et al., 2002, 2007, 2013; Antoine et al., 2009, 2013; Moine, 2014; Schirmer, 2000, 2016). Such global variations are supposed to have caused the dispersal of anatomically modern humans from Africa and the migration into Europe ca. 40,000 years ago (e.g., Sitlivy et al., 2012; Schmidt et al., 2013; Nigst et al., 2014), as well as their probable absence during the Last Glacial Maximum (e.g., Uthmeier, 2006; H€ andel et al., 2009; Holzk€ amper and Maier, 2012a,b; Uthmeier et al., 2011; Holzk€ amper and Koch, 2014; Holzk€ amper, 2013; Moine, 2014), which is still in discussion (cf. Kels and Schirmer, 2010). The potential and resolution of a LPS as an archive of Abbreviations: LRE, Lower Rhine Embayment (Niederrheinische Bucht); FHM, northern foreland of the Harz Mountains (n€ ordliches Harzvorland); LPS, Loess- paleosol sequence; LPG, MPG, UPG, Lower Pleniglacial, Middle Pleniglacial, Upper Pleniglacial. * Corresponding author. E-mail address: flehmkuhl@geo.rwth-aachen.de (F. Lehmkuhl). Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Quaternary Science Reviews journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/quascirev http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.quascirev.2016.10.008 0277-3791/© 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Quaternary Science Reviews 153 (2016) 11e30