This volume of the Quaternary Science Journal (Eiszeitalter & Gegenwart) contains five scientific articles, which were presented during the meeting of the German Quaternary Association (DEUQUA) in Vienna from the 31. of August to the 6. of September 2008. Already during the meeting in Vienna a broad spectrum of regional and thematic contributions was displayed. And also the presented articles in this volume range regionally from the Baltic sea, over Northern Germany, Lower Austria up to Serbia and from marine Holocene sequences to Pleistocene cover sediments and continental loess.