Remains of a Holocene drowned forest in southern Lake Huron discovered in 12.5 m of water (164 m above sea level), 4.5 km east of Lexington, Michigan USA (Sanilac site), provided wood to investigate environment and lake history using several proxies. Macrofossil evidence indicates a forest comprised primarily of conifers equivalent to the modern “rich conifer swamp” community, despite generally low regional abundance of these species in pollen records. Ages range from 7095 ± 50 to 6420 ± 70 14C yr BP, but the clustering of stump dates and the development of 2 floating tree-ring chronologies suggest a briefer forest interval of no more than c. 400 years. Dendrochronological analysis indicates an environment with high inter-annual climate variability. Stable-carbon isotope composition falls within the range of modern trees from this region, but the stable-oxygen composition is consistent with warmer conditions than today. Both our tree-ring and isotope data provide support for a warmer environment in this region, consistent with a mid-Holocene thermal maximum. This drowned forest also provides a dated elevation in the Nipissing transgression at about 6420 14C yr BP (7350 cal yr BP) in the southern Lake Huron basin, a few hundred years before reopening of the St. Clair River drainage.

Deadwood tree stems scattered above treeline on tephra-covered slopes of Whitewing Mtn (3051 m) and San Joaquin Ridge (3122 m) show evidence of being killed in an eruption from adjacent Glass Creek Vent, Inyo Craters. Using tree-ring methods, we dated deadwood to AD 815–1350 and infer from death dates that the eruption occurred in late summer AD 1350. Based on wood anatomy, we identified deadwood species as Pinus albicaulis, P. monticola, P. lambertiana, P. contorta, P. jeffreyi, and Tsuga mertensiana. Only P. albicaulis grows at these elevations currently; P. lambertiana is not locally native. Using contemporary distributions of the species, we modeled paleoclimate during the time of sympatry to be significantly warmer (+3.2°C annual minimum temperature) and slightly drier (−24 mm annual precipitation) than present, resembling values projected for California in the next 70–100 yr.

We present a comprehensive summary of the available palaeoclimate records from India and compare the results from different proxies. The results indicate (i) fluctuating lake levels during the early Holocene. The period of relatively higher lake levels from increased precipitation efficiency was reached only ∼7.2–6.0 cal kyr BP, possibly due to increased contribution from winter rainfall; (ii) the onset of aridity in NW India could have begun as early as ∼5.3 cal kyr BP. Subsequently, there were multiple wet events but of shorter duration and smaller magnitude than during the mid Holocene; (iii) there is evidence of several short term climate events in the proxy record. However, in the absence of a rigorous chronological framework a detailed regional correlation is not possible at this stage. Finally, a comparison between marine and terrestrial records indicates that episodes of strongest and weakest monsoon winds were not always associated with wettest and driest episodes respectively in the NW Indian lakes.

Establishing natural climate variability becomes particularly important in remote polar regions, especially when considering questions regarding higher than average warming. We present a high-resolution record of temperature variability for the past 800 yr based on sedimentary diatoms from a treeline lake in Finnish Lapland. The BSiZer multiscale smoothing technique is applied to the data to identify significant features in the record at different temporal levels. The overall reconstruction shows relatively large multi-centennial temperature variability with a total range of about 0.6–0.8°C. At millennial scales, the temperatures exhibit a statistically significant long-term cooling trend prior to industrialization (ΔT = −0.03°C/century). At the centennial timescale, three warm time intervals were identified around AD 1200–1300 (terminal phase of the Medieval Warm Period, MWP), 1380–1550 and from 1920 until the present. Pronounced coolness occurred between AD 1600 and 1920, indicative of the Little Ice Age (LIA). At the decadal level, certain shorter-term climate excursions were revealed. The warmest ∼10–30 yr, non-overlapping periods occurred in AD 1220–1250, 1470–1500 and 1970–2000, respectively. The classic events of MWP and LIA are evident in our record, as is also the 20th century warming.

Cores and exposed cliff sections in salt marshes around Ho Bugt, a tidal embayment in the northernmost part of the Danish Wadden Sea, were subjected to 14C dating and litho- and biostratigraphical analyses to reconstruct paleoenvironmental changes and to establish a late Holocene relative sea-level history. Four stages in the late Holocene development of Ho Bugt can be identified: (1) groundwater-table rise and growth of basal peat (from at least 2300 BC to AD 0); (2) salt-marsh formation (0 to AD 250); (3) a freshening phase (AD 250 to AD 1600?), culminating in the drying out of the marshes and producing a distinct black horizon followed by an aeolian phase with sand deposition; and (4) renewed salt-marsh deposition (AD 1600? to present). From 16 calibrated AMS radiocarbon ages on fossil plant fragments and 4 calibrated conventional radiocarbon ages on peat, we reconstructed a local relative sea-level history that shows a steady sea-level rise of 4 m since 4000 cal yr BP. Contrary to suggestions made in the literature, the relative sea-level record of Ho Bugt does not contain a late Holocene highstand. Relative sea-level changes at Ho Bugt are controlled by glacio-isostatic subsidence and can be duplicated by a glacial isostatic adjustment model in which no water is added to the world's oceans after ca. 5000 cal yr BP.

This paper presents new evidence from the Dhamar highlands, Yemen, of paleohydrologic response to fluctuations in Holocene climate. Stratigraphic, geochemical, and chronological analyses of highland peat and lacustrine deposits contribute to knowledge of the timing of early Holocene moisture changes on the Arabian Peninsula, providing a backdrop to understanding early cultural development in the Arabian highlands. The location of the Dhamar highlands, characterized by intermontane valleys surrounded by the highest mountains on the Arabian Peninsula and adjacent to the Indian Ocean is ideal for examining the influence of the Indian Ocean Monsoon (IOM) on the moisture history of this region. Fluctuations in the lacustrine and paleosol records of the Dhamar highlands reflect both local changes in paleohydrology and regional influences on the Holocene paleoclimatic conditions in southwest Arabia. In addition, a peat deposit with a radiocarbon age of 10,253 ± 10,560 cal yr BP documents some of the earliest Holocene high moisture conditions on the Arabian Peninsula.

Pollen, charcoal, magnetic susceptibility, and bulk density data provide the first paleoecological record spanning the last 33,000 years from the western cordillera of the Peruvian Andes. Sparse super-puna vegetation existed before 30,000 cal yr B.P. around Lake Compuerta (3950 m elevation), prior to a sedimentary hiatus that lasted until c. 16,200 cal yr B.P. When sedimentation resumed, a glacial foreland or super-puna flora is represented in which Polylepis was a significant element. Glacial outwash, marked by high sedimentary magnetic susceptibility, increased from c.16,200 cal yr B.P. and reached a peak at c. 13,200 cal yr B.P. Between c. 12,500 cal yr B.P. and 10,000 cal yr B.P., magnetic susceptibility was reduced. Vegetation shifts suggest a cool dry time, consistent with regional descriptions of the Younger Dryas event. Deglaciation resumes by 10,000 cal yr B.P. and the last ice is lost from the catchment at ∼7500 cal yr B.P. During the early Holocene warm and dry period between 10,000 and 5500 cal yr B.P., Alnus expanded in downslope forests. Alnus declined in abundance at 5500 cal yr B.P. when wetter and cooler conditions returned and human activity intensified. Maize (Zea mays) pollen first occurred in the core at ∼2600 cal yr B.P., indicating a minimum age for local agriculture. An increase in Alnus pollen abundance at ∼1000 cal yr B.P. could be due to human activity or perhaps due to a regional climate change associated with cultural turnover elsewhere in the Andes at this time.

Lacustrine sediments from southeastern Arabia reveal variations in lake level corresponding to changes in the strength and duration of Indian Ocean Monsoon (IOM) summer rainfall and winter cyclonic rainfall. The late glacial/Holocene transition of the region was characterised by the development of mega-linear dunes. These dunes became stabilised and vegetated during the early Holocene and interdunal lakes formed in response to the incursion of the IOM at approximately 8500 cal yr BP with the development of C3 dominated savanna grasslands. The IOM weakened ca. 6000 cal yr BP with the onset of regional aridity, aeolian sedimentation and dune reactivation and accretion. Despite this reduction in precipitation, the lake was maintained by winter dominated rainfall. There was a shift to drier adapted C4 grasslands across the dune field. Lake sediment geochemical analyses record precipitation minima at 8200, 5000 and 4200 cal yr BP that coincide with Bond events in the North Atlantic. A number of these events correspond with changes in cultural periods, suggesting that climate was a key mechanism affecting human occupation and exploitation of this region.

The radiocarbon ages of mollusc shells from the Bogenfels Pan on the hyper arid southern coast of Namibia provide constraints on the Holocene evolution of sea level and in particular, the mid-Holocene highstand. The Bogenfels Pan was flooded to depths of 3 m above mean sea level (amsl) to form a large subtidal lagoon from 7300 to 6500 calibrated radiocarbon years before present (cal yr BP). The mollusc assemblage of the wave sheltered lagoon includes Nassarius plicatellus, Lutraria lutraria, and the bivalves Solen capensis and Gastrana matadoa, both of which no longer live along the wave-dominated southern Namibian coast. The radiocarbon ages of mollusc shell from a gravely beach deposit exposed in a diamond exploration trench indicate that sea level fell to near or 1 m below its present-day position between 6500 and 4900 cal yr BP. The rapid emergence of the pan between 6500 and 4900 cal yr BP exceeds that predicted by glacio-isostatic models and may indicate a 3-m eustatic lowering of sea level. The beach deposits at Bogenfels indicate that sea level rose to 1 m amsl between 4800 and 4600 cal yr BP and then fell briefly between 4600 and 4200 cal yr BP before returning to 1 m amsl. Since 4200 cal yr BP sea level has remained within one meter of the present-day level and the beach at Bogenfels has prograded seaward from the delayed arrival of sand by longshore drift from the Orange River. A 6200 cal yr BP coastal midden and a 600 cal yr BP midden 1.7 km from the coast indicate sporadic human utilization of the area. The results of this study are consistent with previous studies and help to refine the Holocene sea-level record for southern Africa.

The Great Sand Dunes National Park and Preserve (GSDNPP) in the San Luis Valley, Colorado, contains a variety of eolian landforms that reflect Holocene drought variability. The most spectacular is a dune mass banked against the Sangre de Cristo Mountains, which is fronted by an extensive sand sheet with stabilized parabolic dunes. Stratigraphic exposures of parabolic dunes and associated luminescence dating of quartz grains by single-aliquot regeneration (SAR) protocols indicate eolian deposition of unknown magnitude occurred ca. 1290–940, 715 ± 80, 320 ± 30, and 200–120 yr ago and in the 20th century. There are 11 drought intervals inferred from the tree-ring record in the past 1300 yr at GSDNPP potentially associated with dune movement, though only five eolian depositional events are currently recognized in the stratigraphic record. There is evidence for eolian transport associated with dune movement in the 13th century, which may coincide with the “Great Drought”, a 26-yr-long dry interval identified in the tree ring record, and associated with migration of Anasazi people from the Four Corners areas to wetter areas in southern New Mexico. This nascent chronology indicates that the transport of eolian sand across San Luis Valley was episodic in the late Holocene with appreciable dune migration in the 8th, 10–13th, and 19th centuries, which ultimately nourished the dune mass against the Sangre de Cristo Mountains.

Glacial Lake Missoula, a source of Channeled Scabland flood waters, inundated valleys of northwest Montana to altitudes of ∼ 1265 m and to depths of >600 m, as evidenced by shorelines and silty lacustrine deposits. This study describes previously unrecognized catastrophic lake-drainage deposits that lie stratigraphically beneath the glacial-lake silts. The unconsolidated gravelly flood alluvium contains imbricated boulder-sized clasts, cross-stratified gravel with slip-face heights of 2–> 35 m, and 70- to 100-m-high gravel bars which all indicate a high-energy, high-volume alluvial environment. Gravel bars and high scablands were formed by catastrophic draining of one or possibly more early, high lake stands (1200–1265 m). Most glacial-lake silt, such as the Ninemile section, was deposited stratigraphically above the earlier deposits, represents a lower lake stand(s) (1050–1150 m), and was not deposited in lake(s) responsible for the highest discharge events. The glaciolacustrine silt-covered benches are incised by relict networks of valleys formed during the drainage of the last glacial lake. Significant erosion associated with the last lake draining was confined to the inner Clark Fork River canyon.

Lake Zeribar sediments covering the time period of the last 25,000 years were examined for the contents of seeds, fruits, Characeae, diatoms, and molluscs. Reconstructions of the variations in the lake water level, salinity, and trophy suggest a sequence of climatic changes. Three pronounced stages of low and varying lake-water level occurred ca. 17,700–15,400, 12,600–12,000, and 10,000–6000 cal yr BP. Some water-level changes were correlated with variations in salinity. The most pronounced increase of salinity occurred 17,700–15,700 and 12,600–12,000 cal yr BP, and less distinct ones occurred about 6400–5900 and 2500 cal yr BP. Diatom assemblages indicated a strong increase of lake trophy ca. 20,200 cal yr BP. Between 6000 and 5000 cal yr BP diatoms characteristic of eutrophy increased in core 63J, and at about 3200 cal yr BP a distinct increase in mesotrophic forms occurred in core 70B. The changes in the occurrence of various organisms indicate increased temperatures about 21,000 cal yr BP, between 15,400 and 12,600, about 12,000, and about 11,700 cal yr BP. The reduced occurrence or disappearance of some of them suggest temperature decreases about 17,700–15,400 and 12,600–12,000 cal yr BP.

Cosmogenic nuclide concentrations measured on abandoned fan surfaces along the Mojave section of the San Andreas Fault suggest that sediment is generated, transported, and removed from the fans on the order of 30–40 kyr. We measured in situ produced cosmogenic 10Be, and in some cases 26Al, in boulders (n = 15), surface sediment (n = 15), and one depth profile (n = 9). Nuclide concentrations in surface sediments and boulders underestimate fan ages, suggesting that 10Be accumulation is largely controlled by the geomorphic processes that operate on the surfaces of the fans and not by their ages.

Field observations, grain-size distribution, and cosmogenic nuclide data suggest that over time, boulders weather into grus and the bar sediments diffuse into the adjacent swales. As fans grow older the relief between bars and swales decreases, the sediment transport rate from bars to swales decreases, and the surface processes that erode the fan become uniform over the entire fan surface. The nuclide data therefore suggest that, over time, the difference in 10Be concentration between bars and swales increases to a maximum until the topographic relief between bars and swales is minimized, resulting in a common surface lowering rate and common 10Be concentrations across the fan. During this phase, the entire fan is lowered homogeneously at a rate of 10–15 mm kyr−1.

The extent of racemization of aspartic acid (Asp) has been used to estimate the ages of 9 shells of the epifaunal calcitic brachiopod Bouchardia rosea and 9 shells of the infaunal aragonitic bivalve Semele casali. Both taxa were collected concurrently from the same sites at depths of 10 m and 30 m off the coast of Brazil. Asp D/L values show an excellent correlation with radiocarbon age at both sites and for both taxa (r2Site 9 B. rosea  = 0.97, r2Site 1 B. rosea = 0.997, r2Site 9 S. casali = 0.9998, r2Site 1 S. casali = 0.93). The Asp ratios plotted against reservoir-corrected AMS radiocarbon ages over the time span of multiple millennia can thus be used to develop reliable and precise geochronologies not only for aragonitic mollusks (widely used for dating previously), but also for calcitic brachiopods. At each collection site, Bouchardia specimens display consistently higher D/L values than specimens of Semele. Thermal differences between sites are also notable and in agreement with theoretical expectations, as extents of racemization for both taxa are greater at the warmer, shallower site than at the cooler, deeper one. In late Holocene marine settings, concurrent time series of aragonitic and calcitic shells can be assembled using Asp racemization dating, and parallel multi-centennial to multi-millennial records can be developed simultaneously for multiple biomineral systems.

A sediment core 7.2 m long from Lake Mirabad, Iran, was examined for loss-on-ignition, mineralogy, oxygen-isotopic composition of authigenic calcite, and trace-element composition of ostracodes to complement earlier pollen and ostracode-assemblage studies. Pollen, ostracode-inferred lake level, and high Sr/Ca ratios indicate that the early Holocene (10000 to 6500 cal yr BP) was drier than the late Holocene. Low δ18O values during this interval are interpreted as resulting from winter-dominated precipitation, characteristic of a Mediterranean climate. Increasing δ18O values after 6500 cal yr BP signal a gradual increase in spring rains, which are present today. A severe 600-yr drought occurred at ca. 5500 cal yr BP, shortly after the transition from pistachio-almond to oak forest. During the late Holocene, two milder droughts occurred at about 1500 and 500 cal yr BP. Within the resolution of the record, no drought is evident during the collapse of the Akkadian empire (4200–3900 cal yr BP). Rather, a decrease in δ18O values to early-Holocene levels may indicate the return to a Mediterranean precipitation regime.

The field properties, micromorphology, grain-size, geochemistry, and optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) ages of two late Quaternary sections have been used to reconstruct the sequence of pedosedimentary processes and to provide insights into landscape evolution in part of the Northern Pampa of Argentina. Paleosols developed in paludal sediments adjacent to the Paraná river at Baradero and in loess at Lozada can both be correlated and linked to other sites, thus enabling for the first time the tentative recognition and tracing of a diachronous soil stratigraphic unit that probably spans the equivalent of at least part of marine oxygen isotope stage (OIS) 5. The paleosol at Lozada was truncated and buried beneath fluvial sediments during the time span of OIS 4 and 3. Eolian gradually replaced paludal inputs at Baradero over this period, and there were also two clearly defined breaks in sedimentation and development of paleosols. The period corresponding to OIS 2 was marked by significant loess accumulation at both sites with accretion continuing into the mid-Holocene only at Lozada. The more developed nature of the surface soil at Baradero probably reflects a combination of a moister climate and a longer soil-forming interval.

A 13.94-m-long sediment core, collected from a medium-sized lake in the Qilian Mountains (NE Tibetan Plateau, China), was analysed palynologically at 81 horizons. The interpretation of indicator taxa yielded various vertical shifts of the vegetation belts. These palaeovegetation results have been checked with lake surface pollen spectra from 8 lakes representing different altitudinal vegetation belts. Our main findings are the following: A short period of the late Marine Isotope Stage 3 (around ∼46,000 yr ago) was characterized by interglacial temperature conditions with a tree line above its present-day altitude. During the LGM, the vicinity of the lake was not covered by ice but by sparse alpine vegetation and alpine deserts, indicating that the climate was colder by ∼4–7°C than today. Markedly higher temperatures were inferred from higher arboreal pollen frequencies between ∼13,000 and ∼7,000 yr ago with a Holocene temperature optimum and a maximal Picea–Betula mixed-forest expansion between ∼9,000 and ∼7000 yr ago, when temperatures exceeded the present-day conditions by at least 1–2°C. Alpine steppes and meadows and sub-alpine shrub vegetation dominated around the lake since the middle Holocene, suggesting that vegetation and climate conditions were exceptionally stable in comparison to previous periods.

The Tedford subfossil locality at Lake Menindee preserves a diverse assemblage of marsupials, monotremes and placental rodents. Of the 38 mammal taxa recorded at the site, almost a third are of extinct megafauna. Some of the bones are articulated or semi-articulated and include almost complete skeletons, indicating that aeolian sediments rapidly buried the animals following death. New optical ages show the site dates to the early part of the last glacial (55,700 ± 1300 yr weighted mean age). This is close to the 51,200–39,800 yr Australia-wide extinction age for megafauna suggested by Roberts et al. [2001, Science 292:1888–1892], but like all previous researchers, we cannot conclusively determine whether humans were implicated in the deaths of the animals. Although an intrusive hearth at the site dating to 45,100 ± 1400 yr ago is the oldest evidence of human occupation of the Darling River, no artifacts were identified in situ within the sub-fossil-bearing unit. Non-anthropogenic causes, such as natural senescence or ecosystem stress due to climatic aridity, probably explain the mortality of the faunal assemblage at Lake Menindee.

The level of Kluane Lake, the largest lake in Yukon Territory, was lower than at present during most of the Holocene. The lake rose rapidly in the late seventeenth century to a level 12 m above present, drowning forest and stranding driftwood on a conspicuous high-stand beach, remnants of which are preserved at the south end of the lake. Kluane Lake fell back to near its present level by the end of the eighteenth century and has fluctuated within a range of about 3 m over the last 50 yr. The primary control on historic fluctuations in lake level is the discharge of Slims River, the largest source of water to the lake. We use tree ring and radiocarbon ages, stratigraphy and sub-bottom acoustic data to evaluate two explanations for the dramatic changes in the level of Kluane Lake. Our data support the hypothesis of Hugh Bostock, who suggested in 1969 that the maximum Little Ice Age advance of Kaskawulsh Glacier deposited large amounts of sediment in the Slims River valley and established the present course of Slims River into Kluane Lake. Bostock argued that these events caused the lake to rise and eventually overflow to the north. The overflowing waters incised the Duke River fan at the north end of Kluane Lake and lowered the lake to its present level. This study highlights the potentially dramatic impacts of climate change on regional hydrology during the Little Ice Age in glacierised mountains.