Records of carbonate ion concentration ([CO32−]) and benthic carbon isotope (δ13C) have profound implications for exploring deep water circulation and global carbon cycle. However, information on the glacial-interglacial deep ocean [CO32−] changes is still limited, especially in the Pacific Ocean. Here, we present new deep water [CO32−] records of the last glacial cycle, reconstructed by the B/Ca ratios

In this study, new approaches are developed for measuring and understanding the reactivity of East African amplifier lakes and the societies that occupied their margins to African monsoon related hydrological changes. Drawing on seven newly discovered archaeological sites in the Lower Awash valley, corresponding to the northern Abhe Lake basin, we present the first Holocene human occupation sequence

We investigated a Holocene (since ∼10 500 cal yr BP) sediment core from a high-altitude, UV-sensitive tundra lake in northwestern Finnish Lapland to disentangle long-term dynamics in underwater UV exposure, lake-catchment coupling processes, and aquatic community development under changing climate. We analyzed biogeochemical and paleobiological proxies indicative of catchment impact, lake production

A Late Pleistocene surface full of tracks and trackways (named ‘Matalascañas Trampled Surface’) has been exposed at the base of the ‘El Asperillo’ cliff (Doñana National Park, Matalascañas, Huelva, southwestern Spain) as a result of recent storms. This surface has been identified as the bottom of the unit AU1, according to the local stratigraphic section, and originated during the marine stage MIS-5

Overdeepenings (ODs) are erosional features that have been excavated below the regional sea/fluvial base level to produce closed topographic basins. Accessing bedrock topography and OD volume is often challenging. Hence, despite constituting major landscape features and being widespread in (paleo-)glaciated regions, ODs have been overlooked and the subglacial processes involved in their evolution have

As with most living organisms, human populations respond to climatic, environmental, and population pressures by transforming their range and subsistence strategies over space and time. An understanding of human ecology can be gained when the archaeological record is placed within the context of dynamic landscape changes and alterations in natural resource availability. We reconstructed the landscape

New high-resolution multibeam bathymetry and sub-bottom profile datasets from Fingerdjupet are used for the first detailed geomorphological mapping of the seafloor in this area. The mapped landforms provide evidence for a palaeo-ice stream flowing in a southeasterly direction from Spitsbergenbanken into Fingerdjupet, merging with Bjørnøyrenna ice stream, and confirm a theorised palaeo-ice divide located

The Early Pleistocene sites of Barranco León and Fuente Nueva 3 (Guadix-Baza Basin, SE Spain) have yielded abundant Oldowan lithic artifacts and one hominin tooth (Homo sp. in level D1 or D2 of Barranco León), today considered to be among the earliest evidence for a hominin presence in Western Europe, at ca. 1.4–1.2 Ma. Here, for the first time, the stratigraphic succession of these two sites are studied

We address concerns raised by Wanless and Dravis (2020) on our paper documenting the late Quaternary evolution of West Caicos island. We negate the claim that omitting their paper (Dravis and Wanless, 2017) had any consequences for our interpretations. We also provide reasoning and data to demonstrate that our interpretation of the Quaternary stratigraphy of the island was derived from detailed field

The tropics are a dynamic component of the global climate system and exert a profound influence on modern climate variability. Yet the role of the tropics in past climate changes, for example during the last glacial termination, is uncertain. This uncertainty is due in part to the relative paucity of terrestrial temperature records from the tropics, which hinders efforts to understand the mechanisms

Humans have been present in the Andes since about 12,000 calibrated years before present (cal yr BP), transitioning from hunter-gatherers to agropastoralist societies in the mid-Holocene. Yet, the timing and effects of this change in behavior on the ecosystem are largely unknown. Using titanium from XRF analysis, loss-on-ignition (LOI), fossil pollen, Sporormiella, and charcoal, we present a high-resolution

Over the past two decades, taphonomic and zooarchaeological studies have focused on Neanderthal settlement patterns and subsistence strategies. The south-eastern margins of the Massif Central constitute one of the regions with the most abundant archaeological evidence of Neanderthal occupations in France. The faunal record of level 5 of Abri du Maras is a unique source of information for analysing

Numerous studies of changes in the climate, vegetation and landscape responses of the Tibetan Plateau (TP) during the Holocene have been published in recent decades. However, several conflicting interpretations are evident within these studies and a comprehensive review of the topic is needed to reconcile them, and thus to provide an improved understanding of the history and forcing mechanisms of Holocene

The Tiglian-A, B and C form the main subdivision of the Early Pleistocene Tiglian Stage in Northwest European chronostratigraphy since the 1960’s. We re-evaluated the sedimentary context and new and legacy pollen assemblages of the classic type localities of these Tiglian pollen zones in the Dutch-German border area and Roer-Valley-Graben. Following recalculation of new upland pollen sums, we found

In East Asia our understanding of Holocene climate change, forcing mechanisms and propagation, require the precise chronological control of palaeoclimate records to allow robust integration of data sets. The existing chronologies, predominantly based on 14C method, however, are not sufficient to constrain key questions about abrupt climate shifts that occur within a century in the transitions between

To put recent Greenland Ice Sheet (GrIS) ice loss into a longer-term context, we must understand its behavior during late-glacial and Early Holocene warming. Previous results seem to suggest that there is a large contrast in the timing of deglaciation between South and Southeast Greenland. However, because of lack of available data, in particular in Southeast Greenland, it is difficult to assess how

Recent increases in archaeobotanical and genetic evidence offer insights into agricultural origins and plant domestication, which suggest a protracted process taking thousands of years that began by 10,000 cal a BP or in the late Pleistocene. Compared to the cereal domestication that was accomplished in the early Holocene in Southwest Asia and Mesoamerica, the reasons for the delay in rice domestication

Comprehending the effects of climate variability and disturbance on forested ecosystems is paramount to successfully managing forest environments under future climate scenarios (e.g., global warming, aridification increase). Changes in fossil pollen abundance in sedimentary archives record past vegetation dynamics at regional scales, mainly related to climate changes and, in the last few millennia

Global surface temperature changes and their drivers during the Holocene Epoch remain controversial. Syntheses of proxy data indicate that global mean annual temperature declined from the mid-Holocene until the Pre-industrial Era, a trend linked to decreasing Northern Hemisphere summer insolation. In contrast, global climate models simulate increasing mean annual temperatures driven by retreating ice

Stable isotopes of carbon and oxygen of fossil specimens are widely used for paleoecological and paleoenvironmental inferences, and there has been an effort to better understand the isotopic paleoecology and chronology of herbivores that inhabited the Brazilian Intertropical Region during the late Quaternary. In the present work, new radiocarbon datings and carbon and oxygen isotopes data for Eremotherium

Surface exposure dating with terrestrial cosmogenic nuclides (TCNs) has become the primary method for determining numerical ages of Pleistocene mountain glacial deposits and landforms in the conterminous western United States (U.S.) and in numerous other glaciated settings worldwide. Recent updates to models of TCN production and scaling warrant a reconsideration of published exposure ages of moraines

The Columbia Icefield is the largest icefield in the Canadian Rockies and feeds eight major glaciers that drain to three different oceans. Previous glacier studies have focused on Athabasca and Saskatchewan Glaciers, primarily due to their easy access. This paper reviews evidence of the Holocene history from all eight glaciers. Maximum Holocene glacier extent was during the Little Ice Age (LIA) with

Few continental palaeoenvironmental sedimentary sequences from Southern Europe are long enough to span the last interglacial period (Marine Isotopic Stage-MIS 5), the last glacial cycle (MIS 4 to 2) and the Holocene. El Cañizar de Villarquemado (North-Eastern Iberian Peninsula) is an exceptional sedimentary lacustrine sequence spanning the last ca. 135,000 years of environmental change in an area of

Radiocarbon dated chronologies are the most extensively applied dating technique when investigating the last ∼45,000 years. In lake and marine sediments, a single macrofossil or several microfossils are the preferred sample material because they have a 14C age that accurately reflects the time of deposition. However, absence of macro- or microfossils are a recurring challenge. Often, it is necessary

Plant domestication is often discussed as a form of mutualism between humans and crop plants. Ethnographies provide records of a multitude of adaptive strategies employed by human societies with varying degrees of reliance on manipulation of wild plant resources. These manipulations have included vegetation clearance, controlled burning, pruning, coppicing, tilling, sowing and more. Such activities

The Early to Mid-Holocene transgression, dated between approximately 10,000 and 7000 cal yr BP, inundated a significant part of the coastal areas of Norway. In this paper we compare observations of the amplitude of the transgression with numerical modelling. The observations of the transgression along the coast vary from a couple of meters to more than 20 m, and depend on the distance from the margin

Oriented lakes—characterized by elongate forms, central basins and shallow littoral shelves—are common features of circum-arctic coastal lowlands. The environmental conditions, geological processes and chronology associated with the development of oriented lakes, however, are little known but essential for understanding how such Arctic lowlands evolve. Using combined techniques of field and drill-log

Understanding the past hydrological cycle and climate change may contribute to the sustainable utilization of water resources. Here we combined groundwater stable isotopes (2H and 18O), age dating (3H and 14C) and water vapour transport trajectories modeling to reveal the moisture source and climate evolution over the last 30 kyr in southeastern Qaidam Basin, northeast Tibetan Plateau. The compositions

Well-resolved lake sediment records are key to answering questions about past hydroclimate variability. These questions are particularly relevant in California (USA), where a recent drought stoked fears of water scarcity and caused significant agricultural and other economic losses in this populous state. To contextualize recent and past cycles of aridity, we utilized a Late Holocene lacustrine record

The Late Pleistocene-early Holocene faunal turnover in South America was characterized by the extinction of all mammals with body mass >300 kg and several smaller taxa, but the driving mechanisms behind it are still poorly understood. Here is presented an analysis of the extinction in the Pampa of southern Brazil (Rio Grande do Sul state), based on fossil assemblages found in the coastal plain (CPRS)

Paleoclimatic records reveal that millennial-scale climate variability during the Pleistocene was most pronounced during intermediate glacial conditions, like Marine Isotope Stage 3 (MIS3), rather than during interglacial and fully glaciated climates, like the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM). The rapid transitions between cold stadials and warm interstadials recorded in Greenland ice cores during MIS3,

How past environments and communities responded to episodes of coastal inundation can inform preparations for future resilience to predicted rises in sea level. Southeast Asia’s extensive coastlines and expanding coastal populations mean vast natural and human capital is at risk from future sea level rise. Regional mangroves provide many ecosystem services that can help mitigate such risks, but deforestation

Geneva Lake in Wisconsin, USA, is > 20,000 years old and contains a 30-m thick lacustrine sediment record of mid-continent North American climate and environmental change. Here we describe a sediment record from Geneva Lake spanning the past 14,500 years. From scanning X-ray fluorescence, organic C and N concentrations and isotopes, X-ray diffraction, magnetic susceptibility, and grain size of bulk

Mainland Southeast Asia is located on the moisture transport route of the Indian summer monsoon (ISM) where hydroclimate records from speleothems have rarely been investigated. Here, we present a new multi-proxy (δ18O and δ13C values, trace element concentrations, and grayscale values) data set of stalagmite KPC1 from Khao Prae cave in western Thailand spanning the last 1400 years (500–1900 CE; the

Local glaciers and ice caps (GICs) respond sensitively and quickly, on the scale of decades to centuries, to climate variations. Continuous records of past fluctuations in GIC size provide information on the timing and magnitude of Holocene climate shifts, and a longer-term perspective on 21st century glacier retreat. Although there is broad-scale agreement on millennial-scale trends in Holocene climate

The Global Overturning Circulation is linked to climate change on glacial-interglacial and multi-millennial timescales. The understanding of past climate-circulation links remains hindered by apparent conflicts among proxy measures of circulation. Here we reconstruct circulation changes since the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) based on a global synthesis of authigenic neodymium isotope records (εNd). We

Caesium-137 (137Cs) has no natural source and is commonly employed in establishing the chronology of recent lake sediments in the Anthropocene epoch. Because of their location in the northern mid-latitude Westerlies circulation region, downwind of the Chernobyl accident and their proximity to the Lop Nur Chinese Nuclear Testing (CNT) site, lake sediments in NW China record a137Cs fallout maximum of

Caribbean island ecosystems underwent significant landscape transformations in the centuries after Columbus landed in the archipelago in AD1492, but there is no agreement as to the degree and extent of pre-Columbian human impacts and the long-term trends of ecosystem disturbance and recovery. Here, we present an integrative analysis of three palaeoenvironmental records in the northern Caribbean island

We have investigated the sensitivity of the Mediterranean atmospheric moisture budget (P-E) to large global mean temperature changes and the mechanisms for its seasonal changes. Model simulations of the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) and Representative Concentration Pathway rcp8.5 scenario have been compared to pre-Industrial (PI) conditions. We have decomposed (P-E) in thermodynamic, dynamic, transient

Despite its importance for California’s water resources, little is known about how precipitation has varied in far northern California beyond the historical record. We present a new, multi-proxy paleoclimate record derived from two coeval stalagmites from Lake Shasta Caverns (LSC), California that covers the end of Marine Isotope Stage 3 through Heinrich Stadial 1 (∼35,000 to 14,000 years BP). At 40

The long-term ecological interactions between fire and the composition of dominant trees and shrubs in boreal and cold temperate Fennoscandian forests are still under discussion. We hypothesized that fire-prone taxa should abound during periods and regions characterized by higher fire disturbance, while fire-intolerant taxa should dominate when and where fire activity is low. Biomass burning (BB) is

Saltmarsh evolution is closely linked to sea-level rise (SLR) and sediment supply. In a regime of accelerating SLR, saltmarsh survival depends on the ability of the marsh platform to grow vertically through organic and inorganic accumulation, and laterally via transgression over adjacent uplands. In formerly glaciated settings, the formation and maintenance of a saltmarsh are complicated by steep uplands

There is compelling evidence that millennial climate variability of the last glacial period was associated with significant changes in the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC). Several North Atlantic sedimentary Pa/Th records indicate a consistent and large Pa/Th increase across millennial-scale events, which has been interpreted as considerable reduction in North Atlantic Deep Water

Agriculture has been practiced in Iceland since settlement (landnám; AD 877). This has caused changes in vegetation communities, soil erosion, desertification and loss of carbon stocks. Little data exist regarding vegetation and ecosystems in the Icelandic highland before landnám and therefore the impact of land use over time is poorly understood. The objectives of the study are to examine the timing

The ‘early anthropogenic hypothesis’ (EAH), published in 2003, proposed that early agricultural humans transformed planet Earth by adding CO2 to the atmosphere by deforestation after 7000 years ago and by adding CH4 to the atmosphere by wet-rice farming and livestock tending after 5000 years ago. Later work led to the insight that the resulting warming of the atmosphere and the ocean would have contributed

During the early to middle Holocene, the Sahara received enhanced precipitation and was covered by steppe-like vegetation with a large-scale hydrographic network of lakes, wetlands and fans, which is known as the Green Sahara (GS). However, most coupled land-atmosphere models underestimate the precipitation and vegetation cover, suggesting that critical atmospheric or land surface processes are lacking

Alpine regions of the Mediterranean realm are among the most climatically sensitive areas in the world. Thus, alpine wetlands from the southern Iberian Peninsula, in the westernmost part of the Mediterranean region, are highly sensitive sensors of environmental changes. Difficulties have surfaced in separating controls by temperature and/or precipitation in previous paleoenvironmental studies from

Palaeoecological analyses of Falkland Island peat profiles have largely been confined to pollen analyses. In order to improve understanding of long-term Falkland Island peat development processes, the plant macrofossil and stable isotope stratigraphy of an 11,550 year Falkland Island Cortaderia pilosa (‘whitegrass’) peat profile was investigated. The peatland developed into an acid, whitegrass peatland

Arctic precipitation is predicted to increase in the coming century, due to a combination of enhanced northward atmospheric moisture transport and local surface evaporation from ice-free seas. However, large model uncertainties, limited long-term observations, and high spatiotemporal variability limit our understanding of these mechanisms, emphasizing the need for paleoclimate records of precipitation

Since the inception of pollen analysis, climatic reconstruction using fossil pollen records has been one of its major applications. However, modern pollen-climate relationships have been mainly established using surface soil pollen assemblages (including moss cushions and trap samples), and pollen assemblages from the surface sediments of lakes (and peatlands) have been used less frequently. Previous

Palsas and peat plateaus are climatically sensitive landforms in permafrost peatlands. Climate envelope models have previously related palsa/peat plateau distributions in Europe to modern climate, but similar bioclimatic modelling has not been attempted for North America. Recent climate change has rendered many palsas/peat plateaus in this region, and their valuable carbon stores, vulnerable. We fitted

The development of biotic communities since the last glaciation has been shaped by both dramatic climate changes and pathways of species colonisation from glacial refugia. Although the growing body of literature has emerged recently on possible scenarios of postglacial colonisation, less is known about the effect of climate. We analysed the dynamics of Holocene mollusc succession with an undetected

The Coastal Range in eastern Taiwan, which has resulted from arc-continent collisions, involves well-developed Holocene uplifted marine terraces along a 140-km long stretch of the coast. This is the first study that unraveled the aseismic generation of marine terraces associated with coseismic uplift along the creeping fault. We organized DEMs/LiDAR mapping and field surveys to obtain detailed and

Our recent study suggests that branched glycerol dialkyl glycerol tetraethers (brGDGTs) in ancient bones may have great potential for reconstructing in-situ paleoclimate conditions. However, one major problem with reconstructing past climate and environmental conditions using brGDGTs in ancient bones is the lack of calibrations specific to bones. Here we investigate the distribution of brGDGTs in 191

Changes in synoptic atmospheric circulation patterns are thought to play a role in establishing millennial scale climate periods during the end of the late glacial and the Holocene. In the northeastern United States, multi-proxy evidence documents fluctuations in effective moisture and temperatures for this time period, but constraining the relationship between atmospheric processes and these climate

Human paleodemographic changes were related to environmental fluctuations for the North American Arctic and boreal region, including Greenland. Using the frequency of archaeological radiocarbon dates as a proxy for population size, past changes in population were estimated and quantitatively examined in relation to reconstructions of temperature and sea ice conditions. This analysis was conducted across

Recent studies have found a significant mismatch between the amount of low-frequency variability in paleo-hydroclimate records and that simulated by climate models. However, uncertainties in how proxy systems record climate are significant, and the influence of low-frequency non-climate noise in paleoclimate archives is difficult to constrain. We use proxy system models to compare a network of mostly

Andøya on the NW coast of Norway is a key site for understanding the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) in northern Europe. Controversy has arisen concerning the local conditions, especially about the timing and extent of local glacial cover, maximum July temperatures and whether pine and/or spruce could have grown there. We reviewed all existing data and add newly analysed ancient sedimentary DNA (sedaDNA)

During glacial/interglacial cycles, changes in the strength of the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC) modified the intermediate and deep-water mass proportions and high latitude productivity in the Atlantic Ocean. These factors influence the distribution and geochemical partitioning of trace metals in the ocean. Mercury is a redox and productivity-sensitive trace metal, making it a