Fossil invertebrates records in cave sediments and paleoenvironmentalassessments – a study of four cave sites from Romanian Carpathians

[摘要] Fossil invertebrates from cave sediments have been recently described as apotential new proxy for paleoenvironment and used in cross-correlations withalternate proxy records from cave deposits. Here we present the results of afossil invertebrates study in four caves from two climatically differentregions of the Romanian Carpathians, to complement paleoenvironmental datapreviously reported. Oribatid mites and ostracods are the most commoninvertebrates in the studied cave sediments. Some of the identified taxa arenew to science, and most of them are indicative for either warm and/or cold stagesor dry and/or wetter oscillations. In two caves the fossil invertebrates recordsindicate rapid climate oscillations during times known for a relativelystable climate. By corroborating the fossil invertebrates' record with theinformation given by magnetic properties and sediment structures,complementary data on past vegetation, temperatures and hydraulic regimescould be gathered. This paper analyzes the potential of fossil invertebraterecords as a paleoenvironmental proxy, potential problems and pitfalls.

[学科分类] 地球化学与岩石