The Arabian Peninsula has a unique setting to resolve how proximity to tectonically diverse plate margins, eustacy, and glacial isostatic adjustment (GIA) influences coastal sea level fluctuations. New 14C AMS and U series dating of coastal sediments from the western, southern, and eastern plate margins (Al-Wajh and Thuwal, Saudi Arabia; Bar Al-Hikman, Oman; Abu Dhabi, U.A.E) have been integrated with

Stalagmite oxygen isotope (δ18O) record has been widely used in characterizing Asian Monsoon variations. In southwest (SW) China, although the stalagmite δ18O was usually suggested as a precipitation proxy, it remains a subject of debate. Here we present two replicated, high-precise-dated stalagmite δ18O records for the interval 1710–2003 AD from Yunnan province, SW China. The stalagmite δ18O shows

Climate projections for the North American Southwest (NASW) predict an increasing frequency and duration of droughts over the 21st century in response to human-induced warming, with potentially severe economic and social consequences. The geological record provides a way to contextualise this prediction because of the past occurrence of abrupt hemispheric warming events and sustained intervals of atmospheric

Evidence for a glacial advance into the Upper Mississippi River Basin between Marine Isotope Stage (MIS) 2 and MIS 6 has been debated for over a century. New sedimentological and chronological data provide evidence for two advances of the Laurentide Ice Sheet (LIS) into Iowa during MIS 3 to the east and west of the local glacial maximum margin. The lithology of the MIS 3 till is similar to the MIS

Cyanobacterial blooms in water bodies have occurred on a worldwide basis in the last few decades, and knowledge of their occurrence under natural conditions, and of the mechanisms responsible, is important for understanding their origin. However, little is known about the long-term trends in cyanobacterial abundance in the pre-industrial era, and its causes. Traditional microscope analysis of microfossil

The most recent maximum in global ice volume occurred around 23,000 to 19,000 years ago, during Marine Isotope Stage 2 (MIS 2; ∼29-14 ka) according to benthic δ18O and sea level records. However, evidence from cosmogenic surface exposure dating indicates that world-wide many glacier systems of different sizes as well as portions of some ice sheets were more extensive during MIS 4 (∼71-57 ka) and MIS

Glacial and fluvial landforms record the recent history of the Earth surface and have the potential to provide information about uplift and climate changes during Quaternary times. Patagonia hosts uniquely well-preserved moraine deposits, along with outwash and fluvial terraces. This offers the possibility of determining the timing of glacier advances since the Great Patagonian Glaciation (ca. 1.2 Ma)

Mpondoland on the South African east coast is a particularly dynamic region in terms of climate change as it is influenced by both temperate and tropical circulation and climate systems. We present a sediment record that indicates regional climatic change and anthropogenic influence during the last ∼5500 yr. Catchment data allow an understanding of signal transmission from the catchment to the site

A new history of great earthquakes (and their tsunamis) for the central and southern Cascadia subduction zone shows more frequent (17 in the past 6700 yr) megathrust ruptures than previous coastal chronologies. The history is based on along-strike correlations of Bayesian age models derived from evaluation of 554 radiocarbon ages that date earthquake evidence at 14 coastal sites. We reconstruct a history

The evolutionary history of Bison is a matter of debate due to the scarcity of fossil remains from the earliest members of this clade and the close morphological similarities among species. To clarify the taxonomic status of the earliest stouter bison and their relationships to their putative ancestor, Leptobos, as well as other primitive forms traditionally referred to subgenus Bison (Eobison), we

The Southern Volcanic Zone of the Andes (∼33–46° S) is a very active volcanic zone with several volcanic centers recording recurrent historical activity (e.g. Llaima, Villarrica, Puyehue-Cordón Caulle, Osorno, Calbuco and Hudson). Tephrochronology is a valuable tool to help better understand the eruptive history of volcanic centers, essential for producing volcanic hazard maps. Additionally, tephrochronology

Paleotemperature changes during the Late Quaternary are mainly derived from marine and ice core records. However, there are relatively few temperature reconstructions from the East Asian Monsoon region, which has hindered our mechanistic understanding so far. To address this issue, a new time series of paleo-temperature was developed, based on the analysis of branched glycerol dialkyl glycerol tetraethers

The intra-montane Guadix-Baza Basin is one of the few continental basins in Europe that hosts a well-dated set of fossiliferous sites spanning from the latest Miocene to the late Middle Pleistocene. The Cúllar de Baza 1 (CB-1) represents a key site to investigate the effects of the Early-Middle Pleistocene Transition, considered a fundamental transformation in the Earth’s climate state. Our review

During the last interglaciation (LIG; ∼129–116 ka), global mean sea level (GMSL) was 6–9 m above present. However, the source, or sources, of the higher-than-present sea level are only partially confirmed with far fewer geologic constraints than GMSL itself. Because of modest LIG Greenland Ice-Sheet retreat that raised sea level by < 2.5 m, Antarctic ice sheets are hypothesized to have contributed

Over the Tibetan Plateau (TP), lakes as paleoenvironmental archives have been the most extensively investigated for their sensitivities to climate change on different timescales. Well-preserved shoreline and terrace remains surrounding these lakes provide critical geomorphological and sedimentary evidence that can be used to infer past lake levels over geological timescales. These features can offer

Conflicting reconstructions of Holocene variability of the East Asian summer monsoon (EASM) from speleothem versus other types of proxy records have yielded widely divergent estimates of its phase relationship with the Indian summer monsoon (ISM) and Northern Hemisphere summer insolation (NHSI). This apparent discrepancy has been partly attributed to the uncertainties in the climatic representation

The Pacific coast of northern South America, from Panama to Ecuador, also known as the Chocó biogeographic region, is one of the wettest and more biodiverse places on Earth. These wet conditions are caused by the presence of a tropical low-level atmospheric current known as the Chocó low level Jet that transports moisture from the Pacific Ocean to the Andes of Colombia and is responsible for a large

The chronology of the most extensive Late Pleistocene glaciation in the eastern Pyrenees is now well established, but climatic variations during the subsequent Last Glacial-to-Interglacial Transition (LGIT) are much less well documented. The aim of this research is to fill that gap. We present a new series of 22 10Be exposure ages from a sequence of moraines in the upper Ariège catchment, and update

Lowland multiple-channel rivers are characterised by floodplain-corridor heterogeneity, high ecological and heritage value, and can be in quasi-stable states. This holistic study of a surviving temperate zone example (Culm, UK) uses geomorphological mapping, 14C, direct sediment dating (OSL, fallout radionuclides), and palaeoecology. This reveals the evolution of a channel-floodplain system from an

Climate change modes between East Asia and southwestern North America are interlinked; however, little research has been done in comparing the underlying mechanisms between time scales. Here we present a comprehensive study using modern observations, paleoclimate records, and PMIP3/CMIP5 simulations to investigate the multi-timescale wet/dry changes in East Asia and southwestern North America and its

We present results from Lago Negro, a small closed-basin lake adjacent to Lago Rosselot, to examine the vegetation and environmental history of an insufficiently studied sector of Chiloé Continental (41°30′-44°S) in northwestern Patagonia. Lake sediment cores from Lago Negro reveal 27 tephra deposited since ∼12.7 ka, including two prominent rhyodacite tephra marker beds erupted from Volcán Melimoyu

Trinil (Java, Indonesia) yielded the type fossils of Homo erectus and the world’s oldest hominin-made engraving. As such, the site is of iconic relevance for paleoanthropology. However, our understanding of its larger geological context is unsatisfactory. Previous sedimentological studies are around 100 years old and their interpretations sometimes contradictory. Moreover, the existing stratigraphic

The African monsoon system controlled the mobilisation and delivery of clay-sized sediment particles to the Eastern Mediterranean Sea in the late Quaternary. During African Humid Periods of the last 200 kyr, smectite-rich suspension load was provided by the Nile river and by palaeo-rivers discharging into the Gulf of Sirte. After the termination of the African Humid Periods, kaolinite- and palygorskite-rich

The chain of events surrounding the initiation and intensification of the last glacial cycle remain relatively poorly understood. In particular, the role of Southern Ocean paleocirculation changes is poorly constrained, in part, owing to a paucity of sedimentary records from this region. In this study we present multiproxy data – including neodymium isotope and sortable silt measurements – for paleocirculation

High-resolution quantitative analyses have been carried out in samples from the Ocean Drilling Program (ODP) Site 975 in the Algero-Balearic basin through late Marine Isotope Stage (MIS 20)-Termination IX (800–784 ka). The multi-proxy study combines data of planktonic δ18O, δ13C, calcareous plankton (coccolithophores, foraminifera), palynomorphs, alkenone-based sea surface temperature (SST), % alkenone

The modern Eastern Equatorial Pacific (EEP) Ocean is a high nutrient low chlorophyll (HNLC) upwelling region and a large oceanic source of carbon to the atmosphere. During the last deglaciation, the EEP played a major role in the outgassing of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere from the upwelling surface water system of CO2-enriched deep-water masses originating from the Southern Ocean. The EEP upwelling

The streamflow of the Bailong River, which is a secondary tributary of the Yangtze River located on the eastern Tibetan Plateau, has declined in recent decades. Although instrumental records for the Bailong River are short, historical streamflow reconstructions enable us to evaluate the recent streamflow reductions from a multi-century perspective. Here, we present the first water-year streamflow reconstruction

The extinction of California’s flightless duck, Chendytes lawi, stands out in the faunal history of North America because it involved a marine animal that disappeared in the late Holocene, not in the terminal Pleistocene when humans arrived from Asia, nor with the more recent entry of Europeans and associated resource exploitation. Here we evaluate the duck’s ecology by combining a stable isotopic

We aim to understand how did cool temperate rainforest respond to changes in climate and fire activity over the past 18 kcal yrs, interrogating the role that flammable plant species (such as Eucalyptus) have in the long-term dynamics of rainforest vegetation. We used high-resolution pollen and charcoal analysis, radiometric dating (lead and carbon), modern pollen-vegetation relationships, detrended

Cave sediments pose dating challenges due to complex depositional and post-depositional processes that operate during their transport and accumulation. Here, we confront these challenges and investigate the stratified sedimentary sequence from Wonderwerk Cave, which is a key site for the Earlier Stone Age (ESA) in Southern Africa. The precise ages of the Wonderwerk sediments are crucial for our understanding

Understanding patterns of colonisation is important for explaining both the distribution of single species and anticipating how ecosystems may respond to global warming. Insular flora may be especially vulnerable because oceans represent severe dispersal barriers. Here we analyse two lake sediment cores from Iceland for ancient sedimentary DNA to infer patterns of colonisation and Holocene vegetation

Sea-ice is believed to be an important control on climatic changes through the Mid-Pleistocene Transition (MPT; 0.6–1.2 Ma). However, the low resolution/short timescale of existing reconstructions prevents a full evaluation of these dynamics. Here, diatom assemblages from the Bering Sea are used to investigate sea-ice evolution on millennial timescales. We find that sea-ice was primarily controlled

The multidisciplinary analysis of two long sedimentary successions of continental and shallow marine deposits from the Venetian plain (NE Italy) provides new data on the stratigraphic architecture and the landscape evolution of the south-eastern Alpine foreland basin during the last 210–220 ka, with further evidences of a warm temperate phase older than MIS 8. We present and discuss a detailed multi-proxy

Hydrogen isotope ratios (2H/1H or δ2H) were measured in lipid biomarkers from algal, plant and microbial sources in sediment cores from a lake and a peat bog on the small, sparsely-inhabited Washington Island (4°43′N, 160°25′W) to assess central equatorial Pacific hydroclimate conditions during the last millennium. High δ2H values in lipids from a variety of biological sources indicate that the driest

The bathyal Ocean Drilling Program Site 765 at 5725 m water depth, offshore northwest Australia at 16°S is directly under the influence of the Australian monsoon during the Austral summer and is the recipient of continental dust during the Austral winter. It is downstream of the Indonesian Throughflow, which is a major arm of the global thermohaline circulation. As such it is ideally situated to record

We present PALEO-SEAL, a simple web interface that allows visualizing, querying and downloading Holocene sea-level datapoints formatted following the HOLSEA data template. The data is hosted on a mySQL database, and the interface uses AngularJS. PALEO-SEAL is scalable to large datasets and can be deployed in few easy steps, that require only basic knowledge of SQL and HTML. The tool is released in

This paper presents a multi-proxy approach to coastal Stone Age demography. It uses the district Hordaland, western Norway as a case and applies the proxies SPD (summed probability distributions) of radiocarbon dates and stray find distributions. These are compared to pollen-based landscape reconstructions. Large numbers of Stone Age sites have been surveyed and excavated in western Norway during the

In contrast to the detection and resolution of Late Pleistocene interstadials (Marine Isotope Stages; MIS 5c, 5a and 3) in marine and ice core-based oxygen isotope records, accurately defining palaeosea-levels for these events from sea level indicators remains a challenge. Commonly, such investigations have been undertaken in tectonically active, subduction-related settings, on emergent marginal marine-coastal

To understand the causes and implications of an extinction event, detailed information is necessary. However, this can be challenging when working with poorly resolved paleontological data sets. One approach to increase the data resolution is by combining different methods. In this study, we used both radiocarbon and genetic data to reconstruct the population history and extinction dynamics of the

Sediments transported in rivers reflect the geology of the catchment area and its radiogenic isotopic composition. These isotopic signatures are not significantly altered by weathering, transport or deposition and hence can document variations in sediment supply. Here we present strontium (Sr), neodymium (Nd) and lead (Pb) isotope values from suspended and riverbed sediments of the Plata River drainage

Understanding the strength and extent of the Asian summer monsoon (including the East Asian summer monsoon and the Indian summer monsoon) in the Tibetan Plateau (TP) region is crucial for predicting possible changes in the regional eco-environment and water resources under global warming. Due to the lack of well-dated and high-resolution paleoclimate records, long-term monsoon dynamics are still not

Climate and disturbance regimes play key roles in shaping the structure, composition and functioning of terrestrial ecosystems. Despite this importance, very few stratigraphic studies in the temperate rainforests from northwestern Patagonia have explored this relationship in detail along a time continuum through the entire Holocene. Here we present a high-resolution fossil pollen and charcoal record

The geomagnetic dipole moment (GDM) modulates the production rates of cosmogenic radionuclides via the shielding of galactic cosmic rays. Therefore, it is possible to use this linkage to reconstruct past changes in the GDM based on cosmogenic radionuclide records from natural archives such as ice cores. Here we present a GDM reconstruction based on 10Be and 36Cl data from two Greenland ice cores from

Shell middens, sometimes in the form of mounds of great size, are a ubiquitous indicator of coastal settlement and exploitation of marine resources across the world. However, shell middens are relatively rare before the mid-Holocene because most palaeoshorelines before that time are now submerged by sea-level rise since the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM). Previously reported examples of underwater shell

Anthropogenic shell accumulations (shell middens), often of great size, occur in their tens of thousands around the world’s coastlines. They mostly date from the Mid-Holocene onwards and are frequently taken as symptomatic of a Postglacial ‘revolution’ involving world-wide population growth and intensification in exploitation of marine resources. However, the comparative rarity of earlier deposits

Changes in lake status are often interpreted as palaeoclimate indicators due to their dependence on precipitation and evaporation. The Global Lake Status Database (GLSDB) has since long provided a standardised synopsis of qualitative lake status over the last 30,000 14C years. Potential sources of uncertainty however are not recorded in the GLSDB. Here we present an updated and improved relational-database

Shrinking glaciers, melting permafrost, and reduced sea ice all indicate rapid contraction of the Arctic cryosphere in response to present-day climate warming, a trajectory that is expected to continue, if not accelerate. The reaction of the Arctic cryosphere to past periods of climate variation can afford insight into its present and future behavior. Here, we examine a ∼12,000 year record of glacier

The mid-elevation settings of the Andes are important biodiversity hotspots, yet little is known of their long-term ecology or environmental change. Here, we assess 30,000 years of landscape and vegetation dynamics on an alluvial terrace located in a mid-elevation valley of the Ecuadorian Andes (Campo Libre). We used loss-on-ignition and particle size analysis to reconstruct past river dynamics, charcoal

Testate amoebae (TA) are a common and diverse group of protists and are especially abundant in peatlands. The structure of peatland TA communities is well correlated to surface moisture and water table depth (WTD). For that reason, TA are widely used as proxy indicators in ecological and palaeoecological studies. Peatlands are abundant across Asia, but the diversity and ecology of the TA that inhabit

The continental silicon (Si) cycle, including terrestrial and freshwater ecosystems (lakes, rivers, estuaries), acts as a filter and modulates the amount of Si transported to the oceans. In order to link the variation in the terrestrial Si cycle to aquatic ecosystems, knowledge on changes in vegetation cover, soil disturbance and the impact of human activity are required. This study on varved lake

The frequent alternation between droughts and floods in the karst regions of Southwestern China has a serious impact on the ecological environment and socio-economic development. Although some high-resolution records for this region have been published, there is a lack of multi-proxy geological records that could be used to reconstruct the relationships between the changes in the Asian summer monsoon

Based on previous radiocarbon and U-series (Diffusion/Adsorption) dating of bone samples, the Middle Palaeolithic has been thought to persist at Gruta da Oliveira until ∼37 thousand years (ka) ago. New U-series ages for stratigraphically constraining speleothems, coupled with new luminescence ages for sediment infill, show that the site’s ∼6 m-thick archaeological stratigraphy dates entirely within

Sediment cores from the Northwind Ridge north of the Arctic Chukchi-Alaskan margin were analyzed for a suite of stratigraphic and provenance proxies. Based on the correlation to previously studied regional records, cores under study present sedimentary environments of Marine Isotope Stages (MIS) 1–11 (∼0.4 Ma) on millennial time scales. Contrasting glacial-interglacial conditions and provenance were

The pardel lynx Lynx pardinus is today restricted to small populations living in southern Iberian Peninsula. However, this endangered species was widely spread throughout Iberia until historical times and is currently the subject of intense conservation programs. Paleontological data suggest that its past geographical range was much wider, including also southern France and northern Italy. Here, we

The contribution from northern high latitude wetlands are a major uncertainty in the atmospheric methane (CH4) budget throughout the Holocene. We reconstructed CH4 emissions from northern peatlands from 13,000 BP to present using an empirical model based on observations of peat initiation (>3600 dates), peatland type (>250 peat cores), and observed CH4 emissions in order to explore the effects of changes

Two fundamental questions about the ice-age climate system await satisfactory resolution. First, if summer solar radiation intensity truly controls the orbital signature of the last glacial cycle, then why were major climatic shifts, including the last termination, globally synchronous? Second, what caused the millennial-scale climate oscillations superimposed on this cycle? We address these questions

Identifying the hydrological and environmental response of the European Alpine region to different combinations of climate boundary conditions is crucial to advance the reliability of predictive climate models and thus shape climate adaptation policies that will impact millions of people in seven countries. Here we present a high-resolution multiproxy speleothem record (stable oxygen and carbon isotope

Global overturning circulation plays a vital role in atmospheric CO2 and climate variability during glacial-interglacial (G-I) cycles; however, the exact mechanism remains elusive due to inadequate knowledge on past deep water circulation in the global ocean. Since no deep water is formed in the northern Indian Ocean, it ventilates from the south and acts only as a host for deep water circulation.

Several hundred thousand year old moraines preserved in the semi-arid environment of High Mountain Asia attest to Middle Pleistocene glaciations, but the regional correlation of glacial stages and the spatial extent of the glacial advances remain poorly constrained. We examined glacial landforms and Quaternary sediments in the Bartang valley, northwestern Pamir, a region with no previous quantitative