In the present study, we performed gastropod analyses on loess–palaeosol sequences from northeast Armenia (Southern Caucasia) covering at least three glacial–interglacial cycles. The elaborated ecostratigraphy shows significant patterns of species composition related to the succession of pedocomplexes and loess, respectively. Pedocomplexes included species that can be associated with high‐grass to forest‐steppe biomes, indicating increased humidity for these sections compared to the loess layers. In contrast, loess layers that relate to glacial periods are associated with gastropod species of semidesert environments with shrub‐ and shortgrass‐steppes, indicating semiarid to arid conditions. Furthermore, the loess deposits do not show any evidence for cold‐adapted gastropod species. Therefore, we suggest that average July temperatures in the study area were above 10 °C, even during periods of loess deposition. Consequently, we propose that the limiting factor for tree growth during glacial periods was aridity, rather than temperature. In addition, we observe environmental differences between the various glacial times, with our results indicating a trend towards steadily increasing aridity in Southern Caucasia across the Middle to Late Pleistocene.

中文翻译：

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从第四纪腹足动物区系推断南高加索冰川-冰川间气候条件的新见解

在本研究中，我们对亚美尼亚东北部（南高加索地区）的黄土-古土壤序列进行了腹足动物分析，该序列至少覆盖了三个冰川-冰川间的周期。详尽的生态地层学显示出分别与pedocomplex和黄土的演替有关的物种组成的重要格局。Pedocomplexes包括可能与高草到森林草原生物群落相关的物种，这表明与黄土层相比，这些区域的湿度增加。相反，与冰川期有关的黄土层与半干旱环境的腹足类物种有关，灌木和短草草原属于半干旱环境，表明半干旱至干旱条件。此外，黄土沉积物未显示出冷适应腹足动物的任何证据。因此，我们建议即使在黄土沉积期间，研究区域的7月平均温度也高于10°C。因此，我们认为冰川期树木生长的限制因素是干旱而不是温度。此外，我们观察到了各个冰川时期之间的环境差异，我们的研究结果表明，南高加索地区的干旱在中更新世至晚更新世期间呈稳定增长的趋势。