Established chronologies indicate a long-term ‘Hoabinhian’ hunter-gatherer occupation of Mainland Southeast Asia during the Terminal Pleistocene to Mid-Holocene (45 000–3000 years ago). Here, the authors re-examine the ‘Hoabinhian’ sequence from north-west Thailand using new radiocarbon and luminescence data from Spirit Cave, Steep Cliff Cave and Banyan Valley Cave. The results indicate that hunter-gatherers exploited this ecologically diverse region throughout the Terminal Pleistocene and the Pleistocene–Holocene transition, and into the period during which agricultural lifeways emerged in the Holocene. Hunter-gatherers did not abandon this highland region of Thailand during periods of environmental and socioeconomic change.

To ascertain the provenance of water reaching wetlands in an area sustaining a population of Pleistocene–Holocene foragers, 87-strontium/86-strontium isotopic ratios (87Sr/86Sr) of mollusks from channels of the Old River Bed inland delta of central Utah were measured. Potential provenances examined included overflow from Pleistocene–Holocene Lake Gunnison, ground water flow from the Sevier basin, ground water discharge from piedmont aquifers infiltrated by Lake Bonneville, and ground waters from local regional aquifers. Old River Bed inland delta channels active from ~13.2 cal ka BP until ~11.2 cal ka BP have 87Sr/86Sr values of 0.70930–0.71049 that are consistent with water sourced from Lake Gunnison in the Sevier basin. Inland delta channels active from ~11.2 cal ka BP until shortly after ~9.3 cal ka BP have 87Sr/86Sr values of 0.70977–0.71033, suggesting ground water flowed from the Sevier basin during the early Holocene. Ratios of 87Sr/86Sr did not match known values for Lake Bonneville, but the youngest Old River Bed inland delta channel system has an 87Sr/86Sr ratio consistent with a local ground water source, perhaps Government Creek. Consistent ground water discharge may explain the persistence of foragers in the region despite the increasingly arid climate of the Great Basin.

The Palaeolithic–Neolithic transition in East Asia is characterised by the transformation of mobile hunter-gatherer groups into sedentary communities. The existence of ‘ice-age’ pottery in the Japanese archipelago, however, is inconsistent with claims that directly link climatic warming with sedentism and the development of ceramics. Here, the authors reconsider the chronology and palaeoenvironment of the Maedakochi site in Tokyo. New AMS dating and environmental data suggest that intensified inland fishing in cold environments, immediately prior to the Late Glacial warm period, created conditions conducive to sedentism and the development of subsistence-related pottery.

AMS radiocarbon cross-dating of plant debris and marine shells trapped in a lake basin on Mount St. Hilaire (Québec, Canada) provides a direct assessment of a reservoir effect totaling ca. 1800 14C years during the early stage of Champlain Sea. Pollen-based extrapolation of bottommost ages on terrestrial plant macrofossils in sediments of this lake, and of another lake nearby support an estimate of 11,100 ± 100 14C yr B.P. for marine invasion in the Central St. Lawrence River Lowlands. Results indicate a 400–1000 years younger regional chronology of ice retreat, now congruent with the one inferred from the New England varve chronology. This is a summary of a longer paper to be published in French.

Small mammal communities in western North America experienced declines in taxonomic richness across the late Pleistocene to Holocene transition (PHT), a recent natural global warming event. One community also experienced a decline in evenness and others replaced one species with a congener. Variability in response of small mammal communities to PHT warming is apparent. At the presently arid and xeric Marmes site in the Columbia Basin of southeastern Washington State, megafauna were absent by about 13,000 cal yr BP, evenness of small mammals declined about 11,700 cal yr BP and again about 11,400 cal yr BP whereas richness declined about 11,400 cal BP. Regional faunal turnover was, however, minimal among small-bodied taxa. Local mammal communities are depauperate as a result of megafaunal extinctions and subsequent decreases in small-mammal richness and evenness. The latter chronologically corresponds with a decrease in primary productivity driven by increasing warmth and aridity. More faunas must be studied in order to fully document the range of variability in the responses of mammalian communities to PHT warming. Documentation of patterns in those responses will facilitate understanding and enhance predictive accuracy with respect to responses of mammalian communities to modern global warming.

The Northern Prince Gustav Ice Stream located in Prince Gustav Channel, drained the northeastern portion of the Antarctic Peninsula Ice Sheet during the last glacial maximum. Here we present a chronology of its retreat based on in situ produced cosmogenic 10Be from erratic boulders at Cape Lachman, northern James Ross Island. Schmidt hammer testing was adopted to assess the weathering state of erratic boulders in order to better interpret excess cosmogenic 10Be from cumulative periods of pre-exposure or earlier release from the glacier. The weighted mean exposure age of five boulders based on Schmidt hammer data is 12.9 ± 1.2 ka representing the beginning of the deglaciation of lower-lying areas (< 60 m a.s.l.) of the northern James Ross Island, when Northern Prince Gustav Ice Stream split from the remaining James Ross Island ice cover. This age represents the minimum age of the transition from grounded ice stream to floating ice shelf in the middle continental shelf areas of the northern Prince Gustav Channel. The remaining ice cover located at higher elevations of northern James Ross Island retreated during the early Holocene due to gradual decay of terrestrial ice and increase of equilibrium line altitude. Schmidt hammer R-values are inversely correlated with 10Be exposure ages and could be used as a proxy for exposure history of individual granite boulders in this region and favour the hypothesis of earlier release of boulders with excessive 10Be concentrations from glacier directly at this site. These data provide evidences for an earlier deglaciation of northern James Ross Island when compared with other recently presented cosmogenic nuclide based deglaciation chronologies, but this timing coincides with rapid increase of atmospheric temperature in this marginal part of Antarctica.