The complete paleoecological history from Lake Consuelo forest yields a record of ground-level cloud formation and changes in its lower altitudinal limit over the last 46,300"cal yr BP. The timing of early lake level fluctuations prior to 37,000"cal yr BP appears sensitive to North Atlantic temperature oscillations, corresponding to Dansgaard"Oeschger interstadials 11, 10 and 8 recorded in GISP2. After the LGM, the first hint of warming is recorded in Lake Consuelo at 22,000"cal yr BP and agrees with other estimates for the region. The mid-Holocene (7400"5000"cal yr BP) was the period of highest rates of change and most significant reorganizations in the Consuelo forest. These community changes resulted from a regionally widespread dry period. Results from Lake Consuelo indicate that moisture availability, mediated through cloud cover, played the most significant role in ecological change in this system. Rates of past climate fluctuations never exceeded the forest capacity to accommodate change. Unfortunately, this might not be the case under predicted scenarios for the end of the current century.

The deposits of Glacial Lake Quincy overlie a diamicton associated with the classically defined Illinoian limit in central Indiana. This lake covered at least 180 km2 with a depth of > 20 m and developed when the Illinoian ice sheet retreated 15 km from the maximum limit, causing lake impoundment against Devore Ridge. Overflow from Glacial Lake Quincy eroded across the ridge forming a number of steeped-walled outlets. A section along Mill Creek exposes a sedimentologic sequence associated with Glacial Lake Quincy from a subglacial diamicton to ice-proximal to ice-distal glacial lacustrine sediments. We report new optical ages by multiple aliquot regenerative dose procedure for the fine-grained rhythmically bedded sediments presumed to represent the lowest energy depositional facies, dominated by suspension settling, which maximized sunlight exposure. In turn, optical ages were determined on the fine-grained (4-11 μm) polymineral and quartz fractions under infrared and blue excitation, which yielded statistically similar ages. Optical ages span from ca. 170 to 108 ka, with the average of 16 optical ages indicating deglaciation at ca. 135 ka, generally coincident with Marine Oxygen Isotope Stage 6-to-5 transition and rise in global sea level.

The relationship of sea-level changes and short-term climatic changes with turbidite deposition is poorly documented, although the mechanisms of gravity-driven sediment transport in submarine canyons during sea-level changes have been reported from many regions. This study focuses on the activity of the Dakar Canyon off southern Senegal in response to major glacial/interglacial sea-level shifts and variability in the NW-African continental climate. The sedimentary record from the canyon allows us to determine the timing of turbidite events and on the basis of XRF-scanning element data, we have identified the climate signal at a sub-millennial time scale from the surrounding hemipelagic sediments. Over the late Quaternary the highest frequency in turbidite activity in the Dakar Canyon is confined to major climatic terminations when remobilisation of sediments from the shelf was triggered by the eustatic sea-level rise. However, episodic turbidite events coincide with the timing of Heinrich events in the North Atlantic. During these times continental climate has changed rapidly, with evidence for higher dust supply over NW Africa which has fed turbidity currents. Increased aridity and enhanced wind strength in the southern Saharan–Sahelian zone may have provided a source for this dust.

Deep subpermafrost aquifers are highly climate-dependent, with the permafrost as an aquitard preventing groundwater recharge and discharge. A study from the high-arctic island of Spitsbergen, Svalbard, shows that during a glacial to interglacial phase, both the permafrost and the glacier regime will respond to climatic changes, and a glacier-fed groundwater flow system will vary accordingly. A full glaciation results in the melting of permafrost, and groundwater can flow through pores and fracture systems in the rocks and sediments below the temperate zones of glaciers. These groundwater flow systems will mainly be localized to fjords and valleys and form low-lying terrestrial springs when the relative sea level drops during deglaciation due to glacio-isostatic rise. During an interglaciation, permafrost develops and thickens and the groundwater recharge and discharge areas will thereby be gradually reduced to a minimum reached at the warmest part of an interglaciation. An already frozen spring system cannot reopen before the permafrost melts. Only groundwater springs related to permanently warm-based glacial ice will persist into the next glaciation. During a new glaciation, flow systems that terminated during the previous interglaciation may become revitalized if overridden by warm-based ice causing permafrost thawing.

Stagnation of the terminal region of a glacier occurs in response to sufficiently large and rapid climatic warming, so the presence of stagnation deposits provides quantitative information on the climate change that forced retreat. Here we use a simple flow-line glacier model to investigate the relationship between stagnation, climate forcing and aspects of the glacier bed. For climatic warming greater than the threshold to cause stagnation, larger or faster warming events cause longer regions of a glacier to stagnate. Smaller or slower warming episodes, below the threshold for stagnation, cause retreat while active flow persists along the entire glacier length. The threshold for stagnation depends not only on the climatic forcing but also on many other aspects of the glacier, with stagnation favored by factors including a lower mean bed slope with greater roughness. Quantitative determination of the climatic forcing consistent with the occurrence or absence of stagnation deposits requires that these site-specific characteristics be incorporated in modeling.