Pleistocene climatic stratigraphy and environments of the Terek-Kuma Lowland (NW Caspian sea region) inferred from palynological, paleomagnetic and rodent records of the long Otkaznoye sediment sequence

The paper presents the results of a high-resolution palynological, paleomagnetic, and microtheriological study of the Pleistocene sediment sequence at Otkaznoye in the Eastern Ciscaucasian foreland; a sequence which is unique in its stratigraphic completeness and thickness (∼160 m). The sequence includes loess-paleosol, alluvial, and alluvial-proluvial beds. The detailed climatostratigraphic subdivision of the Otkaznoye sequence allows a correlation of the established paleoclimatic record with the global marine isotope stages. The past climatically induced variability in the landscape of the Terek-Kuma Lowland is reconstructed for all Neopleistocene (i.e., Middle and Late Pleistocene) interglacial and glacial periods and for some intervals during the later Early Pleistocene stages.