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The Araucaria Plateau is a geomorphological unit that occupies approximately three-quarters of the terrain in the southern region of Brazil. The plateau displays different altitudinal levels (600 to <1400 m a.s.l.) that are locally recognized as remnants of planed surfaces (S8-S1). These surfaces are maintained by basic (S3-S8) and acidic (S1 and S2) volcanic flows from the Neocretaceous period of the Paraná Basin. The largest extent of this plateau is located in a humid subtropical climate zone. Colluvial, colluvial-alluvial, alluvial sediments and paleosols (Ab diagnostic horizons) occur predominantly in S2. The paleosols are located in low-hierarchical-order fossil valleys (first- to fourth-order in Strahler's stream classification) and valley heads, which are referred to as paleovalleys in this paper. We employed these paleosols as stratigraphic level markers of the pedogenesis of the regional Upper Quaternary and propose their importance as records of the paleoenvironmental conditions of the Araucaria Plateau in areas above 1200 m a.s.l. These paleosols were dated by 14C and show ages between 23.8 ± 0.05 kyr BP (28.06-29.08 kyr cal. BP) and 41.16 ± 0.48 kyr BP (44.13-45.58 kyr cal. BP). The calibrated ages are related to Marine Isotope Stage 3 (MIS 3), in which the last period of global warming occurred (approximately 60-25 kyr cal. BP). We integrated the morphological, pedogeochemical, clay fraction mineralogy, micromorphological and δC-13 analyses of five paleosols from S2 to verify the paleoenvironmental conditions of the Araucaria Plateau and its correspondence with the paleoclimatic phenomena that were identified on a global scale during MIS 3 in the Southern Hemisphere. We obtained the following conclusions: a) the properties of paleosols reflect pedological processes that are adjusted to the paleoenvironmental conditions at the end of MIS 3 and the transition to MIS 2 (Last Glacial Maximum); b) aplasmogenic partial acidolysis was the predominant pedogeochemical process during MIS 3; c) during this period, the water regime was sufficiently humid to develop hydromorphic horizons in the valley bottoms of the entire drainage network to the valley heads; d) regional change toward a drier hydric regime occurred in MIS 2, when erosion of the paleosols predominated; and e) in MIS 1 (current Holocene interglacial), burial of the paleosols and relief inversion occurred, which resulted in fossilization of the valleys. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: This paper reports the main sedimentary characteristics, soil micromorphology and optically-stimulated luminescence (OSL) ages, and details the pedosedimentary reconstruction, of the Hudson site situated in the northern Pampas of Buenos Aires province. It also provides the OSL chronology and a reinterpretation of previously reported micromorphological features for the nearby site of Gorina. Finally, the stratigraphic records of both sites are compared and the main environmental events discussed in a regional context. At Hudson, situated at a low altitude environment close to the coastal plain, the basal fine-grained paludal deposits were unconformably covered by coastal marine sediments with an OSL age of ca. 128ka supporting its correlation with the high stand of sea level of marine isotope stage 5e. A paleosol developed on the marine deposits and the underlying paludal sediments. OSL ages suggest that soil development and its subsequent erosion occurred over some period between ca. 128 and 54ka. Fine sediment accumulation in a paludal environment continued until prior to ca. 23ka when the accumulation of the uppermost loess mantle started. It continued until the early Holocene when present soil development began. At Gorina, OSL ages suggest that the upper part of the pedocomplex formed at some stage between ca. 194 and 56ka. Loess then accumulated followed by an erosional phase; loess deposition restarted by ca. 29ka and continued until the beginning of the Holocene (ca. 9ka) when the present land surface was established. The stratigraphic and paleoenvironmental differences exhibited by the Hudson and Gorina records result from their contrasting geomorphological settings. The OSL geochronology suggests that the last interglacial (MIS 5) at Hudson is marked by the accumulation of marine deposits (MIS 5e) and the subsequent development of a paleosol. The equivalent soil-forming interval at Gorina is represented by the upper part of the buried pedocomplex. Both at Gorina and Hudson, loess accumulation was dominant especially during MIS 2. Loess accumulation continued during MIS 1 until the early Holocene with apparently somewhat higher sedimentation rates in Hudson. Pedogenesis has been predominant during the rest of the Holocene, resulting in the formation of the surface soil profiles. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]