The anatomy of the Last Glacial Termination (T1) in the southern mid-latitudes, and its relationship with changes in the Southern Westerly Winds (SWW), offers empirical constraints for understanding the mechanisms involved in the transition from the Last Glacial Maximum into the current interglacial. Northwestern Patagonia (40°-44°S) is a sensitive region for monitoring past changes in the SWW, the

Over the past 25 years research concerning the effects of climatic fluctuations on past human societies has shifted focus considerably, with most recent hypotheses emphasizing shorter-term variability over longer-term change. Definitions of change and variability, however, remain subjective and vary considerably between researchers. It is suggested that white noise, due to its inherent unpredictability

In the Franco-Cantabrian region and Catalonia, the Upper Palaeolithic begins with three assemblage-types found in stratigraphic order through the interval between 45,000 and 37,000 years ago: the Châtelperronian, the Protoaurignacian, and the Early Aurignacian. A stone tool, the Châtelperron point, and a bone tool, the split-based point, are index fossils of the first and the last, respectively, but

Beryllium-10 has become the premiere cosmogenic nuclide for quantifying Earth-surface process. Routine measurement of 10Be at the ≤ 2–3% precision level, coupled with precise 10Be production-rate calibrations, now allow for 10Be-based records of glacier and ice-sheet change to be reliably compared to independent records of climate variability. Here, we review efforts over the last 10+ years to characterize

The Indo-Pacific Warm Pool (IPWP) is the largest source of atmospheric heating and moisture on Earth, energizing the global moisture and energy budgets and controlling global ocean-atmosphere circulation. However, the mechanisms driving orbital-scale changes in hydroclimate and proxy records of precipitation isotopic composition remain poorly known. Here, we use the isotope-enabled Transient Climate

Subsistence adaptations respond to environmental instability as well as sociopolitical demands. On the Andean altiplano, camelid husbandry is a key adaptation utilized for thousands of years to mitigate environmental risks to agricultural productivity, to facilitate transport and to generate wealth for political purposes. Here, we reconstruct the history of camelid utilization on the altiplano with

The occurrence of rapid last glacial temperature shifts in both Greenland ice and subpolar marine sediment cores, so-called Dansgaard-Oeschger (D-O) cycles, is evidence of a tight regional climate connectivity in these northern latitudes. By contrast, processes behind high-to-low-latitude teleconnections during the D-O cycles are less well understood, due to imprecisions in cross-dating marine and

The chronological framework for Neanderthal occupation and demise across Europe continues to be debated. In particular, there is still uncertainty regarding the nature, timing and regional expressions of the Middle to Upper Palaeolithic transition associated with the disappearance of Neanderthals and the broader expansion of modern human populations in Europe around 42–40 thousand years ago (ka). The

This study presents, for the first time, an environmental reconstruction of a sequence spanning nearly the entire Mediterranean Epipaleolithic (∼22.0–11.9 ka cal. BP). The study is based on a well-dated, high-resolution pollen record recovered from the waterlogged archaeological site Jordan River Dureijat (JRD), located on the banks of Paleolake Hula. JRD's continuous sequence enabled us to build a

Deep-time paleoclimatic records document large-scale shifts and perturbations in Earth's climate; during the Cenozoic in particular transitions have been recorded on time scales of 10 thousand to 1 million years. Bifurcations in the leading dynamical modes could be a key element driving these events. Such bifurcation-induced critical transitions are typically preceded by characteristic early-warning

The (Laurentian) Great Lakes region (GLR) of North America contains ∼20% of the world's freshwater by total area. Yet, the water quantity and quality of lakes in this region are threatened by water level fluctuations and excessive algal growth associated with climate warming. To understand the mechanisms that drive these changes, we have established a 900-year history of environmental change using

Sediment core ARC5-ICE6 from the Makarov Basin was used to reconstruct circum-Arctic glaciation and surface-ocean circulation history for the Middle to Late Pleistocene, ∼0.5–0.7 Ma. Sedimentary proxies include elemental composition, coarse grain content, clay mineralogy, and radiogenic isotopes (Sr-Nd-Pb). Earlier studied records from the central Arctic Ocean were compared with ICE6 for a broader

On Quadra Island, west coast Canada, a series of marine terraces formed during a period of rapid marine regression from 200 m to 1 m above modern levels between ca. 14,500 and 12,000 years ago. Within this period of regional marine regression, evidence points to brief periods of sea level stillstand and even marine transgressions. It is hypothesized that during these anomalous periods, global meltwater

A lack of adequate high resolution climate proxy records for the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) has prevented the extrapolation of climate–solar linkages on centennial time scales prior of the Holocene. Therefore, it is still unknown whether centennial climate variations of the last ten thousand years convey a universal climate change or merely represent a characteristic of the Holocene. Recently published

Spectral analysis is a technique of time-series analysis that decomposes signals into linear combinations of harmonic components. Rooted in the 19th century, spectral analysis gained popularity in palaeoclimatology since the early 1980s. This was partly due to the availability of long time series of past climates, but also the development of new, partly adapted methods and the increasing spread of

Temperature and the oxygen isotopic composition (δ18O) of meteoric water are both important palaeoclimatic variables, but separating their influences on proxies such as the δ18O of lake carbonates is often problematic. The large temperature variations that are known to have occurred in the northern mid-latitudes during the Late Glacial make this interval an excellent test for a novel approach that

The pattern of changes in Holocene moisture conditions in the southern Tibetan Plateau (TP) and the associated driving mechanism are still controversial. Here, we present the results of an analysis of an aeolian sedimentary sequence from the Yarlung Zangbo River valley in the southern TP, which potentially provides a record of changes in moisture conditions during the Holocene, and hence changes in

Marine microcharcoal records provide invaluable information to understand changes in biomass burning and its drivers over multiple glacial and interglacial cycles and to evaluate fire models under warmer climates than today. However, quantitative reconstructions of burnt area, fire intensity and frequency from these records need calibration studies of the current fire-microcharcoal relationship. Here

The Eastern European steppe and forest-steppe is a key region for understanding the emergence of pottery in Europe. The vast region encompasses the basins of two major waterways, the Don and the Volga rivers, and was occupied by hunter-gatherer-fisher communities attracted to highly productive forest/aquatic ecotones. The precise dates for the inception of pottery production in this region and the

The emerged coral reef terrace sequence at Cape Laundi, on the north coast of Sumba Island (Indonesia), with at least 18 successive strandlines, remains poorly dated in spite of numerous previous data. The age discrepancies within these coral reef terraces (CRTs) were previously explained by their polycyclic nature, triggered by marine erosion and reoccupation of old coral colonies by new ones. This

Equus stenonis is one of the most iconic fossil species of the Early Pleistocene. Although it is known from the 19th century, its taxonomic and evolutionary position has been extensively debated among equid specialists, including multiple interpretations. The current work aims to review the European E. stenonis record, by morphological, morphometrical and statistical analyses combined with body mass

Tree-ring cellulose oxygen isotope (δ18O) in monsoon Asia (MA) is affected collectively by local hydroclimate and remote oceanic-atmospheric variations. Variations of tree-ring δ18O have been widely used for quantitative reconstructions of monsoon-season precipitation, relative humidity and drought severity. However, local hydroclimate and remote large-scale circulation's influences on tree-ring δ18O

The interior of the Iberian Peninsula has few Middle Palaeolithic sites, especially when compared to other areas of the Mediterranean Basin and the northern Spanish region. Few in number too are the zooarchaeological and taphonomic studies that throw light on the relationships between Neanderthal groups, their environment, and the use they made of it. The present work examines, both zooarchaeologically

The Bytham River was one of the major pre-Anglian (MIS 12) rivers of eastern England. Flowing from the Midlands to the East Anglian coast, it has been recognised at numerous sites by its distinctive lithological suite, containing significant quantities of quartzite, quartz and Carboniferous chert that originate from central England. In the Breckland of Suffolk and Norfolk, deposits of the Bytham River

As the intricacies of paleoclimate dynamics are explored, it is becoming understood that sea-ice variability can instigate, or contribute to, climate change instabilities commonly described as “tipping points”. Compared to ice sheets and circulating ocean currents, sea-ice is ephemeral and continental-scale changes to sea ice cover occur seasonally. Sea-ice greatly influences polar albedo, atmosphere-ocean

The global ocean overturning circulation is a major means of distributing heat around the Earth, and an important trigger or amplifier of climate change. This study presents a 1.5-Myr-long neodymium (Nd) isotope record of Deep Sea Drilling Project Site 607, in the core of present-day North Atlantic Deep Water (NADW), the water mass that drives the overturning circulation and its Atlantic end-member

Paleoclimate studies in Patagonia show a high Holocene climate variability, strongly controlled by the intensity and latitudinal position of the Southern Westerly Winds. In this study, environmental and climate variability, and in particular winter precipitation, was reconstructed over the last centuries through sedimentological and geochemical analyses of a core from Lake Jeinimeni in North East Patagonia

The Late-Quaternary climate of Beringia remains unresolved despite the region's role in modulating glacial-interglacial climate and as the likely conduit for human dispersal into the Americas. Here, we investigate Beringian temperature change using an ∼32,000-year lacustrine record of leaf wax hydrogen isotope ratios (δ2Hwax) from Arctic Alaska. Based on Monte Carlo iterations accounting for multiple

Over the past few decades, the δ18O records of ice wedges have been used to estimate late Quaternary winter air temperatures. This study first reviews the development of ice wedges and the potential isotopic fractionation that takes place from snow deposition to formation of ice veinlets. Then, based on the high resolution analysis of ice wedges from the Eureka Sound Lowland (Ellesmere and Axel Heiberg

Ongoing climate change threatens biodiversity and directly affects the stability of plant-animal communities. However, it is unclear how the species diversity of biological communities responds to natural climate warming, and whether the temporal stability of biodiversity in the face of climate warming varies with environmental gradients in different communities due to the lack of long-term data. We

This study presents the first high-resolution speleothem-based hydrological reconstruction for much of the last 2.7 kyr in the central-western Mediterranean. The paleohydrological information comes from a combination of five U-Th dated stalagmites from two Mallorca island caves. Interpretations are based on high-resolution records of δ18O, δ13C and trace element analyses combined with information from

The East Asian summer monsoon (EASM) northern boundary is a critical indicator of EASM variations. Movement of the boundary is modulated by both the EASM and the mid-latitude westerlies. Here, we use the Earth system model EC-Earth to quantify the contribution of orbital forcing and vegetation feedbacks in modulating the movement of EASM northern boundary. The results show that the simulated EASM northern

Coastal communities are vulnerable to sea-level rise and hurricane-induced flooding. Our ability to assess flooding risk at coastal locations is restricted by the short observational record and limited knowledge on storm surge generation during hurricanes of different strength, size and orientation. Here, we present a transect of sediment cores collected from a blue hole near Middle Caicos in the Turks

The small and remote Easter Island (Rapa Nui) has a complex and still partially unknown history of human colonization and interactions with the environment. Previous research from sedimentary archives collected in the three freshwater bodies of Rapa Nui document dramatic environmental changes over the last two millennia. Yet, the characteristics of sediments and paleoenvironmental records are challenging

Central Alaska and Yukon represent the longest continuously inhabited region in the Americas, with a rich record of research on technology, subsistence, and decision-making spanning over 14,000 years. Still, archaeologists debate whether the changes observed in the material and paleodemographic record can be interpreted as the result of environmental influences. This paper presents a multivariate analysis

Raqefet Cave is located in southeast Mount Carmel, Israel. It contains a long archaeological sequence with two major occupations: in the early Upper Paleolithic (Levantine Aurignacian culture, ca. 36,000–35,000 cal. BP) and the Late Epipaleolithic (Natufian culture, ca. 14,000–12,000 cal. BP). Abundant charred remains were found in the cave's deposits consisting of various species. Drawing on Δ13C

Soil erosion is one of the main environmental threats affecting the Critical Zone (CZ) and thus ecosystem services and human societies. Through time, physical erosion is linked to both climate variations and the landscape evolution under long-term human pressures. In mountainous areas where erosion is highest a combination of large spatial and temporal approaches allows to assess the effect of these

The Guadix-Baza Basin (GBB) in Andalucía, Spain, comprises palaeontological and archaeological sites dating from the Early Pliocene to the Middle Pleistocene, including some of the earliest sites with evidence for the presence of early humans (Homo sp.) in Europe. Thus, the history of climate and environments in this basin contributes significantly to our understanding of the conditions under which

Faults of the Roer Valley Rift System (RVRS) are characterized by seismicity, scarps and displaced fluvial terraces, showing that they are active. The Heerlerheide fault is part of the southern boundary fault system of the RVRS, the Feldbiss fault zone (FFZ). During the late 19th and first half of the 20th century coal was mined in the subsurface south of the FFZ. As a result, general subsidence, sinkholes

Planktonic foraminifer oxygen isotopes through MIS 12 were analysed from Ocean Drilling Program Site 977 in the Alboran Sea. After the correction of the sea surface temperature (SST) effect on the δ18O composition of foraminiferal calcite, the resulting seawater δ18O (δ18Ow) was used to reconstruct variations in the δ18Ow of the Atlantic inflow into the Mediterranean. A synchronous record from the

The Arene Candide Cave is a renowned site on the northwestern Italian coast that has yielded numerous burials dating back to the terminal phases of the Pleistocene (Epigravettian culture). Thanks to the exceptional preservation of the remains, and to the information collected during the excavations that begun in the 1940s, researchers were able to reconstruct a complex pattern of manipulation of older

The hypothesis of a connection between the onset (or intensification) of Northern Hemisphere Glaciation, the stepwise increase in African aridity (and climate variability), and an important mammalian (including hominin) species turnover is a textbook example of the initiation of a scientific idea and its propagation in science. It is, however, also an example of the persistent popularity of a hypothesis

Although the 8.2 ka event is a well-known globally documented abrupt climate event, its detailed expression in tropical southeastern Africa is poorly constrained. Here we present a high resolution and precisely dated record of the regional hydroclimatic variability between 8.5–7.5 ka BP from a polymorphic speleothem (ABC-1) from northwestern Madagascar. In combination with the exclusive recurrences

Peatlands are one of the most significant carbon reservoirs in the terrestrial ecosystem. Understanding past peatland carbon accumulation processes and their responses to varying external and internal forcing factors would help reveal the general development patterns of peatland ecosystems and provide useful insights into projecting the fate of carbon reservoirs into the future. In this paper, the

The Negev desert is a part of the northern Saharo-Arabian desert belt, a major physical barrier between Africa and southwest Asia. Its location at the crossroads of the two continents makes it a perfect region to trace the presence of early hominins on the route from Africa to the Levant in major dispersal events. Geomorphological mapping in the central Negev region allows a reconstruction of the Plio-Pleistocene

The century-long 8.2 ka cold event interrupted early Holocene boreal warmth and may have halted retreat of Greenland ice-sheet margins during the last deglaciation. Here, we synthesize new and existing glacial geological data to assess the behavior of the southwest Greenland ice sheet during the 8.2 ka cold event. In southwest Greenland near the town of Kangerlussuaq, existing and new 10Be surface

The behavior of siliciclastic coastal systems is largely controlled by the interplay between accommodation creation and infilling. Factors responsible for altering sediment fluxes to and along open-ocean coasts include cross-shore mobilization of sediment primarily from tidal currents and storms as well as changes in alongshore transport rates moderated by changing wave conditions, river sediment inputs

The Kola Peninsula and Russian Lapland (Murmansk Oblast, northwest Arctic Russia) represents a major sector of the Fennoscandian Ice Sheet (FIS) where empirical geomorphological, sedimentological, and chronological data are lacking and thus, where the pattern, style, and timing of glaciation is not well established. In this study, we present a critical review of published empirical data and interpretations

Magnetic fabric (MF) investigations complemented by geochemical and grain surface analyses of the understudied and controversial marine isotope stage (MIS) 5 b, 4 and 3 loess deposits in the Lower Volga region, Russia show that the material has been transported and deposited by wind and to a large extent experienced post-depositional reworking. Grain surface features suggest that the material was glacially

The Holocene evolution of the Indian Ocean Monsoon (IOM), especially the spatiotemporal nature of its maximum precipitation period, remains controversial. Here we reconstruct high-resolution local δ18Osw and sea surface temperature (SST) values by pairing Mg/Ca values and the δ18O data from planktonic foraminifera Globigerinoides ruber (white) in the southern Andaman Sea in order to understand IOM

During the last deglaciation, North Atlantic climate abruptly warmed at the Bølling (∼14.7 ka), cooled into the Younger Dryas (∼12.9 ka) and abruptly warmed again into the Holocene (∼11.7 ka). While these events are defined by Greenland ice cores, there is still considerable uncertainty on Greenland ice-sheet margin responses to abrupt climate change. To refine the ice sheet's deglacial history, we

The impact of changes in vegetation on ancient human colonization and divergence in Southeast Asia is unclear. Here we present a 40 ky history of vegetation evolution in Borneo, which has been recognized as one of the hubs for early human migration, based on a pollen sequence from the southern South China Sea. Our pollen record shows that the succession of vegetation in Borneo responded to orbital

Regional reconstructions of air temperature over the past millennium provide critical context for ongoing climate change, but they are temporally limited in the recent period or absent for many parts of the world. We demonstrate the use of latewood blue intensity (LWB) to reconstruct current-year growing (warm) season maximum temperatures (Tmax) in the low-to-mid latitudes (30°-50°N) of western North

The Labrador Current (LC) provides freshwater from the Arctic to the North Atlantic, modulating the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC), and therefore affecting the broader North Atlantic climate. The Holocene alongflow variability of the LC vigor, and the associated forcing mechanisms, are poorly understood due to the limited data near the southern limit of the LC. Here we present a

This study examines the late Quaternary glacial history of Suru Basin and its associated tributary valleys (i.e., Achambur, Kangriz, Shafat, Rangdum, and Pensilugnpa), western Himalaya, based on the data collected from field surveys (2015–2019), satellite images, and optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) dating. The glaciers in Suru Basin have fluctuated greatly throughout the Marine Isotope Stages