SHORT PERIOD PALAEOCLIMATIC CHANGES RECORDED BY POLLEN AND LITHOPEDOLOGY IN THE KAYDAKY-PRYLUKY UNITS (TERRESTRIAL EQUIVALENTS OF MIS 5) IN SOUTHERN UKRAINE

The very complete sedimentary archive of the Kaydaky-Pryluky loess-palaeosol units (TL-dated between 132 and 70 kyr BP) is preserved in the sections of the Black Sea Lowland, Pryazov Upland and Crimea: Sazhavka, Novotroitsk, Kryva Luka and Kabazi sites in which pollen and lithopedology were studied in detail. The pollen succession of the Last Interglacial (Substage 5e): Betula-Pinus-Ulmus-Quercus-Corylus-Tilia-Carpinus was revealed in the Lower Kaydaky Luvisol but the upper Pinus and Betulapollen zones occur in the forest-steppe Upper Kaydaky Mollisol (TL 110 kyr BP). The climate became drier at the end of the stage. The next loess-like Tyasmyn unit (0.2-1.2 m thick) was deposited under treeless xeric steppe that indicates a drastic cooling and aridification (TL 103 kyr BP, Substage 5d).

During the Early Pryluky sub-unit (TL 95 kyr BP, Substage 5c), the next palaeoenvironmental changes occurred. The lower Pryluki Cambisol developed under forest-steppe with few broad-leaved trees, whereas the overlying thick Mollisol was formed under mesophytic steppe. The humid south-boreal climate was replaced by the continental one. The Middle Pryluky sub-unit (TL 90, ESR 82 kyr BP, Substage 5b) is a thin loess (with the high content of large silt and carbonates) deposited under subperiglacial semidesert (the widest spread of Chenopodiaceae, Artemisia, and intense frost cracking). At the beginning of the Late Pryluky sub-uint (TL 87, ESR 74-85 kyr BP, Substage 5a), thin steppe Mollisol was replaced by Calcaric Cambisols formed under boreal forest-steppe. The uppermost Pryluky soil is a thin Humic Cambisol developed under boreal grassland. The oscillatory trend to a cooling and aridification occurred during the time span of MIS 5 in Southern Ukraine. The periglacial environment (arcto-boreal vegetation and intense cryoturbations) appeared during Uday loess unit (TL 70 kyr BP, MIS 4).

Paleolithic people lived in the area since the end of the Last Interglacial and in the Ukrainian plains, they were affected by palaeoclimatic changes and disappeared during the cold Tyasmyn and Middle Pryluky stages (Stari Kaydaky, Kurdyumivka and Bilokuz’mynivka sites) whereas in Crimea, the Mousterians existed during these stadials related to MIS 5 and they temporarily disappeared only during the Uday time.