The extensive loess deposits in southern China (‘Xiashu’ loess) are a valuable paleoclimatic archive in the subtropical monsoon region. We carried out a combined study of iron oxide mineralogy, pedostratigraphy, and magnetostratigraphy of three new loess sections in subtropical China. A detailed comparison of the iron oxides content of the Xiashu loess and the loess of the Chinese Loess Plateau reveals

The ecosystem plays an important role in mitigating global warming through carbon assimilation. In addition, climate change has both positive and negative impacts on ecosystem productivity. To combat climate change, the Paris Agreement has set the goal of limiting global warming well below 2 °C with an ultimate target of 1.5 °C above preindustrial levels. It remains unclear how ecosystem productivity

Widespread development of microbialites harbors a series of clues about microbial activity, environmental condition, and aquatic chemistry. The Ediacaran-Cambrian transition draws extensive attention on the co-evolution of complex life and Earth's environment but the associated microorganism development has been largely ignored. In this study, we present a high-resolution database with respect to the

With a growing concern over rapid Antarctic ice loss in recent years, the Amundsen Sea, one of the fastest-melting areas in Antarctica, currently becomes a hotspot for the Earth sciences in the context of its linkage to global climate. As a center of strong physical and biological coupling processes, polynyas of the Amundsen Sea could act as sentinels of changes in atmosphere–ice–ocean interactions

The Cenozoic foreland fold and thrust belt of the external Dinarides along the eastern shore of the Adriatic Sea shows an overall NW-SE structural strike that changes to E-W in its central part, between Zadar and Mostar. This change is associated with a dextrally transpressive zone, named Split-Karlovac Fault. Segments of this fault straddle the Eo-Oligocene flexural foreland basin system of the external

Cyclostratigraphy is a powerful tool in chronostratigraphic studies, and has shown its potential in Precambrian time. The Cryogenian Period is one of the most dynamic and intriguing intervals in Earth history and it is a witness to the most extreme climate changes on the planet, known as two Snowball Earth events. However, a robust chronostratigraphic framework is still lacking especially for the younger

Dozens of subaerial exposure surfaces are assessed in cores from cyclic peritidal carbonates of the Emsian–Eifelian (~410–385 Ma) age. These surfaces range from incipient erosional surfaces to paleokarst profiles and thick (>1 m) calcretic-clayey paleosols. Palustrine carbonates intervening at multiple levels in same strata are the earliest known occurrence of a typical palustrine facies in a coastal

This study examined heat flux from 15 Canadian northern rivers that drain to the Arctic Ocean and the Hudson/James Bay. Based on statistical analysis of available water temperature and discharge data, we determined patterns and characteristics of discharge, water temperature, and heat flux in relation to seasonal air temperature and precipitation. We found similar seasonal cycles of discharge and water

The end-Triassic mass extinction (ETME) is considered to be one of the five most severe extinction events in Earth history and caused the disappearance of ca. 80% of all species. The terrestrial ecosystems were also greatly affected by this extinction, but the severity of the land plant diversity loss is not well understood. Ferns are once a principal component of the terrestrial ecosystem from the

In the eastern Mediterranean Sea, the early Holocene was characterized by major climatic and oceanographic changes that led to the formation of the last sapropel (S1) between 10.8 and 6.1 kyr cal. BP. These hydrographic changes might have altered the water exchange between the eastern and western Mediterranean sub-basins through the Strait of Sicily, but the existing evidences are inconclusive. In

The scarcity of paleo-records from the Antarctic Peninsular region of the Southern Ocean hinders our understanding of the timing of the opening of Drake Passage, specifically in the region of the South Orkney Microcontinent (SOM) and Powell Basin, between the Scotia and Antarctic plates. At Ocean Drilling Program (ODP) Hole 696B, SOM sediments recovered from the upper Eocene-lower Oligocene (~37.6–32

Glacier recession in response to climate warming has resulted in an increase in the size and number of glacial lakes. Glacial lakes are an important focus for research as they impact water resources, glacier mass balance, and some produce catastrophic glacial lake outburst floods (GLOFs). Glaciers in Peru have retreated and thinned in recent decades, prompting the need for monitoring of ice- and water-bodies

The biotic recovery following the end Permian mass extinction (EPME) was unstable with repeated environmental crises, each of which was followed by a comparably more hospitable interval for life. The early Triassic Smithian-Spathian boundary (SSB) event represents a conspicuous turnover in the environment, climate, and biotic communities. To explore the causes and consequences of this event we measured

The Smithian negative C-isotope excursion was one of the major perturbations of the global carbon cycle following the end-Permian mass extinction event. Profound oceanographic and biological changes occurred during the Smithian, but the mechanism driving the negative C-isotope excursion and its links with marine environmental and biotic changes remain poorly constrained. Here, we use high-resolution

The retroarc Amazon region of Ecuador recorded distinct events that are preserved in the Mesozoic-Cenozoic sedimentary record of the Subandean Zone and Oriente Basin. In this contribution, we review the Jurassic to Paleocene geologic and paleogeographic evolution of the Ecuadorian foreland using stratigraphic, sedimentologic, provenance, and geochronological data. Our results provide new insights into

A major reorganization of Patagonian ecosystems occurred when permanent ice sheets appeared in Antarctica and the Andean Range uplifted in southern South America. Rich plant communities dominated by Gondwanan trees and other species with tropical modern distribution vanished and those with cool and arid distributions rose to prominence. Rather than a single event, this landscape-level floristic replacement

Previous studies on surface temperature reconstructions for the last 2000 years (2 k) revealed a long-term cooling trend for the last millennium in comparison to the previous millennium. However, knowledge on the decadal- to centennial-scale variability in sea surface temperature and the underlying governing mechanisms throughout the period is limited. We reconstructed high-resolution continuous sea

The occurrence of a series of thin but persistent early Cambrian (Cambrian Age 4) brachiopod shell concentrations extending along a transect of some 150 km in NE Greenland, indicates the ability of the group to form widespread, skeletal pavements very early in the history of the phylum, its gregarious behaviour and ability to harness available nutrients. These extensive shell pavements within the Bastion

In the context of industrial-era global change, Mediterranean coastal areas are threatened by relative sea level (RSL) rise. Shifts in the drivers of coastal dynamics are forecasted to trigger changes in the frequency of flooding of low-lying areas, with significant effects on marine-coastal environments, societies, economy and urban systems. Here, we probe coastal floods in the eastern part of the

The northern Bay of Biscay has previously proven its great potential for recording the ‘Fleuve Manche’ paleoriver (i.e., the largest Pleistocene river in Europe) fluvio-glacial activity. In this study, new dinoflagellate cyst (dinocyst) analyses have been carried out at sub-centennial resolution in core MD13–3438 to reconstruct the deglacial history of the ‘Fleuve Manche’ paleoriver runoff coupled

The mid-Pliocene warm period (~3.3–3 million years ago) sustained similar atmospheric CO2 concentrations to today, and is thus considered one of the best recent paleoclimate analogs for a future warmer climate. Using model simulations following the Pliocene Model Intercomparison Project Phase 2 experimental design, we investigate the mid-Pliocene mid-latitude hydroclimate with a focus on Pacific atmospheric

The Philippine Sea (PHS) plate subducts beneath the Eurasian plate at the Suruga Trough where megathrust earthquakes have repeatedly occurred. We used data from permanent seismic stations on land and temporary seismic stations beneath Suruga Bay to resolve the seismic velocity structure from the surface to 40–60 km depth beneath the Tokai region. The Median Tectonic line runs through the Tokai region

Increasing evidence shows that the recovery of marine ecosystems after the Permian/Triassic mass extinction (PTME) was coupled with environmental amelioration. Recently, abundant insects and complete trophic structures were unraveled from the Ladinian (late Middle Triassic) in the Ordos basin, central China, deciphering recovery of lacustrine ecosystem from the PTME. Coeval environmental settings,

Co-evolution of marine redox conditions and early animals during the early Cambrian was fundamental to the development of modern Earth ecosystem. Numerous Burgess Shale-type fossil Lagerstätten (i.e., the Chengjiang and Qingjiang biotas) in South China offer taphonomic windows to probe the evolutionary traits of early animals and marine redox variations, and to evaluate the relationship between the

Quantification of soil stocks and ecosystem services (ES) under changing climate need time series of climate and soil data. Here, we propose a new approach combining process-based soil and climate simulations to obtain such time series, and apply it onto a recent interglacial, Marine Isotope Stage (MIS) 5e. We combined the LOVECLIM climate model and the SoilGen2 soil evolution model to simulate soil

The increase in anthropogenic induced warming over the last two centuries is impacting marine environment. Planktic foraminifera are a globally distributed calcifying marine zooplankton responding sensitively to changes in sea surface temperatures and interacting with the food web structure. Here, we study two high resolution multicore records from two western Mediterranean Sea regions (Alboran and

We study the characteristics of wintertime Arctic amplification (AA) and the inter-model spread in model output from the sixth phase of the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project (CMIP6) and the Community Earth System Model Large Ensemble Project (CESM-LE) . The CMIP6 models exhibit a large spread in AA intensity (as measured by an AA index, ranging from about −0.2 to about 1.1 °C/decade in the Historical

The construction and destruction of mountain belts exert a first-order control in ecosystems by creating bridges and barriers for populations, modifying river-drainage networks and local and regional climate patterns. Several questions including How climate and tectonics control topographic growth and decay and what is the thermal and geological record of growth and decay? remain unclear and are subject

In the current climate, a better understanding of the factors that cause variability in Indian summer monsoon rainfall over northeast India is critical because it is susceptible to climate change. The variability and remote teleconnections keep altering owing to this change in climate reign. Therefore, the variability and teleconnections should be studied with recent datasets. In the present study

We present new high-resolution carbonate carbon isotope data (δ13Ccarb) from four sections in the Yangtze Platform, South China, ranging in age from Tremadocian to early Katian. The data have five distinct characteristics: 1) A prominent δ13Ccarb increase from −2.79‰ to 0.13‰ at the base of the Ordovician within the Tremadocian Cordylodus angulatus-Rossodus manitouensis Zone. 2) A positive δ13Ccarb

Lake Balaton (Hungary), the largest lake in Central Europe, formed by the interplay of tectonic and external forces. Its shallow water and young soft sediments together allow to carry out ultra-high resolution reflection seismic surveys to investigate shallow tectonic structures and near surface stratigraphy at depth of ca. 0–30 m. To document neotectonics of the eastern lake basin and its onshore

The Bolivian Amazon foreland basin is controlled by i) the sediment input from the Andes and the topographic load; ii) the basinal uplift in the forebulge; and iii) the uplifting Fitzcarrald Arch in the north. These boundary conditions should lead to bending and active faulting of the crust. However, although the presence of active faults has been inferred from geomorphological studies, neither seismicity

Molecular clocks suggest that at least some heterotrophic protists, such as foraminifera, testate amoebae and tintinnids, were present in ecosystems as far back as 1000 Ma. Vase-shaped microfossils of earlier testate amoebae from the supergroups Amoebozoa and Rhizaria occur globally in pre-Sturtian shallow marine deposits, and have thus been considered as a potential biostratigraphic tool, especially

Alpine glaciers in the low- and mid-latitudes respond more quickly than large polar ice sheets to changes in temperature, precipitation, cloudiness, humidity, and radiation. Many high-altitude glaciers are monitored by ground observations, aerial photography, and satellite-borne sensors. Regardless of latitude and elevation, nearly all nonpolar glaciers and ice caps are undergoing mass loss, which

Continental shelves host 90% of modern Organic Carbon (OC) burial and play a key role in the sequestration of terrigenous OC over geological timescales. The efficiency of OC burial in these systems, however, varies greatly depending on the duration of exposure to oxic-suboxic conditions during sediment transport. In this study, we use observations across a wide range of stratigraphic and sedimentological

At present, global warming is an indisputable fact, and more and more attention has been paid to the impacts of climate warming on global ecological environments. Forests play increasing significant roles in regulating global carbon balance and mitigating climate change. Therefore, to understand the response mechanisms of the carbon budget of global forest ecosystems to future climate change, an improved

Linking the long-term with the short-term exhumation history of a mountain range is vital for understanding the evolution of orogenic topography. Further, erosion rates could be controlled by the variability of climatic and/or tectonic processes over geological time. For example, in the Eastern Cordillera of the Colombian Andes, until recently climate forcing has been hypothesized as the primary driver

A dramatic shift in microbial reefs occurred around the Ediacaran–Cambrian boundary. Here we describe changes in the composition, construction, and texture of microbial reefs in the Zavkhan Terrane of Gobi-Altai Province, western Mongolia, during the late Ediacaran and early Cambrian. Stromatolites consisting of peloids, micritic clots, and homogeneous lime mud without calcified microbes (calcimicrobes)

As greenhouse warming is predicted to intensify the El Niño–Southern Oscillation (ENSO), it is key to understand relationships between the magnitudes and spatial distribution of ENSO events and associated extreme sea levels (ESLs). Current understanding is lacking for river deltas, where human societies and ecosystems are particularly vulnerable to coastal hazards. Using long-term tide gauge records

Wildfires are important in modern ecology but the complex interplay between wildfires and vegetation or climate is less well understood in ancient environments, in particular those of the Arctic regions. This includes the impacts of paleo-wildfires on surrounding marine basins by affecting sedimentation rates and nutrient input via soil degeneration and intensification of continental run-off. The Late

Tide gauge data and information from tide, surge and ocean models have been used to calculate and validate the Gumbel scale parameters of extreme sea level distributions along the world coastline. The inclusion of ocean model information is found to result in significantly improved correspondence between observed and modelled scale parameters to that obtained using tide and surge model information

Understanding the interplay of sedimentation and deformation style is essential to develop an adequate model of the evolutionary history of an extensional sedimentary basin. Due to their volume and temporal extent, late post-rift deposits are often in the focus of research; however, early post-rift deposits are less studied. The aim of the study is to reconstruct the tectono-sedimentary evolution of

The Ediacaran–Cambrian (E-C) transition witnessed dramatic tectonic, climatic, oceanic, and biological co-evolutions at the dawn of the ‘Cambrian explosion’. Although glaciations were reported in some mid-high-latitude continents during this interval, large uncertainties remain concerning timing and extent, as well as their effect on the entire Earth's surface system. We here report magnesium (Mg)

This study aims to discern the drivers of relative sea-level change at Lopud Island, distinguishing local tectonic from regional and global contributions. A detailed survey of sea-level markers (Lithophyllum rims and tidal notches) allowed the distinction of a seismotectonically uplifted sector, approximately 1 km in length, along the southern coast of Lopud Island (Southern Adriatic). The established

The transitional regions between the low and high latitudes of the Northern Hemisphere are highly vulnerable to future climate change yet most of the current climate models usually diverge in their projections. To better understand the dynamics in these regions, the reconstruction of past hydrological fluctuations and precipitation patterns is of paramount importance to accurately constrain present

The African Sahel-Sudano-Guinean region is one of the largest water limited environments in the world, thus making it highly vulnerable to climate change. Recent studies have shown vegetation greening in the region, but few have investigated the impact of this greening on carbon and water cycles. We used a combination of earth observation (EO) data and a diagnostic model to evaluate the extent of the

The Amazon forest is increasingly vulnerable to dieback and encroachment of grasslands and agricultural fields. Threats to these forested ecosystems include drying, deforestation, and fire, but feedbacks among these make it difficult to determine their relative importance. Here, we reconstruct the central and western Amazon tree cover response to aridity and fire in the mid-Holocene—a time of less

In the Southern Ocean (SO), climate-driven latitudinal migrations of the Antarctic Circumpolar Current (ACC) frontal system impact large-scale ocean circulation and primary productivity. Latitudinal migrations may not have been identical in all SO basins due to the presence or absence of regional bathymetric obstacles. The Antarctic Polar Front (APF), defined by the 3–5 °C surface temperature range

This study calls upon recently discovered aerial photographs for two atolls in the Indian Ocean Chagos Archipelago. Pairing these vintage data with modern satellite imagery allows the coastline dynamics of a suite of islands to be quantified over a 36-to-50-yr. period. Peros Banhos represents one of the few atolls globally where natural island dynamics can be appraised; withstanding just one of its

The factors determining the spatial distribution of soil organic carbon (SOC) at large-scales closely align with bioclimate regions; reflecting climate, ecosystem and soil properties. Recent studies of the Köppen-Geiger climate zones of Australia have highlighted an extension of the hot, arid, steppe environment from central Australia into the southeast (SE) under future climate change scenarios (2071–2100

About 21% of the African population directly depends on rangeland resources. As this number is predicted to grow, it is important to understand the response of African rangelands to global environmental change and formulate, in turn, better hypotheses on their capacity to support livelihoods. Here we used three decades of satellite data and a dynamic global vegetation model to study the response of

Many hierarchical schemes have been developed to describe multiple-scale cut-and-fill architecture of deep-water channel systems and analyse their evolution. A widely applicable genetical-based scheme is not on the horizon yet. Near seismic-scale exposures of two deep-water channel systems from the late Miocene of the Transylvanian Basin, Romania offer a fresh insight into the dynamics of erosional

Since 2012, we have investigated a stratigraphic section encompassing the late Eocene–earliest Oligocene interval at Shapaja (Tarapoto area, Peruvian Amazonia, ca. 7°S), through paleontological and geological fieldwork. The measured sedimentary series (120 m-thick [West] plus 90 m-thick [East]), assigned to the upper member of the Pozo Formation, records fluvial micro-conglomeratic lenses intercalated

There has been a progressive increase in the number and area of ice-marginal lakes situated along the south-western margin of the Greenland Ice Sheet (GrIS) since the 1980s. The increased prevalence of ice-marginal lakes is notable because of their capacity to enhance mass loss and ice-margin recession through a number of thermo-mechanical controls. Although such effects have been extensively documented