Vegetation dynamics during the earliest part of the Holocene (11,250"10,250"cal yr BP) have been reconstructed from a lacustrine sequence on Sandoy, the Faroe Islands, using detailed plant macrofossil and pollen evidence. The plant macrofossils suggest the initial vegetation was sparse herb and shrub tundra, with Salix herbacea and open-ground species, followed by the development of a denser and more species-rich arctic heathland after 11,150"cal yr BP. Despite high pollen values for Betula nana, macrofossils are rare. The bulk of the macrofossils recorded are S. herbacea and Empetrum leaves with numerous herb taxa and an abundance of Racomitrium moss. Conditions start to change around 10,800"cal yr BP, with increased catchment erosion and sediment delivery to the lake from ca. 10,600"cal yr BP, and a transition to alternating Cyperaceae and Poaceae communities between ca. 10,450 and 10,250"cal yr BP. This vegetation change, which has been recorded throughout the Faroes, has previously been interpreted as a retrogressive shift from woody shrubs to a herbaceous community. The detailed plant macrofossil data show the shift is the replacement of an Empetrum arctic heathland by grassland and moist sedge communities. These taxa dominate the modern landscape.

Geomorphic, stratigraphic, geotechnical, and biogeographic evidence indicate that failure of a Pleistocene ice dam between 15.5 and 26 ka generated a megaflood from Glacial Lake Atna down the Matanuska Valley. While it has long been recognized that Lake Atna occupied ⩾9000 km2 of south-central Alaska's Copper River Basin, little attention has focused on the lake's discharge locations and behaviors. Digital elevation model and geomorphic analyses suggest that progressive lowering of the lake level by decanting over spillways exposed during glacial retreat led to sequential discharges down the Matanuska, Susitna, Tok, and Copper river valleys. Lake Atna's size, ∽50 ka duration, and sequential connection to four major drainages likely made it a regionally important late Pleistocene freshwater refugium. We estimate a catastrophic Matanuska megaflood would have released 500–1400 km3 at a maximum rate of ⩾3×106 m3 s–1. Volumes for the other outlets ranged from 200 to 2600 km3 and estimated maximum discharges ranged from 0.8 to 11.3×106 m3 s–1, making Lake Atna a serial generator of some of the largest known freshwater megafloods.

Large areas in western China were wetlands or less arid between 40 and 30 ka, corresponding to the “Greatest Lake Period” on the adjacent Tibetan Plateau. During the last glacial maximum, some of these western Chinese deserts again experienced wetter conditions; however, at the same time the sandy lands in the eastern Chinese desert belt experienced an activation of aeolian dunes. While interpretations of the mid-Holocene environment in the deserts of China are controversial, it is quite likely that it was more humid not only in the eastern areas influenced by monsoon climate systems but also in the western deserts where moisture is currently associated with westerlies. Evaluation of lacustrine records in the lakes recharged by dryland rivers and the complex interactions of these systems, as well as other paleoenvironmental proxies such as the Artemisia/Chenopodiaceae ratio, should be interpreted with greater caution. Facing the highlighted uncertainties in our understanding of climate changes in Chinese deserts, it is hoped that this special issue will improve our knowledge considerably.

This paper presents a lake-level record established for the last millennium at Lake Saint-Point in the French Jura Mountains. A comparison of this lake-level record with a solar irradiance record supports the hypothesis of a solar forcing of variations in the hydrological cycle linked to climatic oscillations over the last millennium in west-central Europe, with higher lake levels during the solar minimums of Oort (around AD 1060), Wolf (around AD 1320), Spörer (around AD 1450), Maunder (around AD 1690), and Dalton (around AD 1820). Further comparisons of the Saint-Point record with the fluctuations of the Great Aletsch Glacier (Swiss Alps) and a record of Rhône River floods from Lake Bourget (French Alps) give evidence of possible imprints of proxy sensitivity on reconstructed paleohydrological records. In particular, the Great Aletsch record shows an increasing glacier mass from AD 1350 to 1850, suggesting a cumulative effect of the Little Ice Age cooling and/or a possible reflection of a millennial-scale general cooling until the mid-19th century in the Northern Hemisphere. In contrast, the Saint-Point and Bourget records show a general trend toward a decrease in lake levels and in flood magnitude anti-correlated with generally increasing solar irradiance.

The integration of geomorphic mapping, soil stratigraphy, and radiocarbon dating of alluvial deposits offers insight to the timing, magnitude, and paleoclimatic context of Holocene fan sedimentation near Yuma, Arizona. Mapping of 3400 km2 indicates about 10% of the area aggraded in the late Holocene and formed regionally extensive alluvial fan and alluvial plain cut-and-fill terraces. Fan deposits have weakly developed gravelly soils and yielded a date of 3200–2950 cal yr BP from carbonized wood. Alluvial plain deposits have weakly developed buried sandy soils and provided a date of 2460–2300 cal yr BP from a terrestrial snail shell. Precipitation records were analyzed to form historical analogues to the late Holocene aggradation and to consider the role of climatic variability and extreme hydrologic events as drivers of the sedimentation. The historical precipitation record indicates numerous above-average events correlated to the Southern Oscillation Index (SOI) in the region, but lacks any significant reactivation of alluvial fan surfaces. The timing of aggradation from 3200 to 2300 cal yr BP correlates well with other paleoclimatic proxy records in the southwestern U.S. and eastern Pacific region, which indicate an intensification of the El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) climatic pattern and rapid climate change during this period.

We present new estimates on evaporation and groundwater recharge in the Badain Jaran Desert, western Inner Mongolia of northwestern China, based on a modified Penman Equation suitable for lakes in China. Geochemical data and water balance calculations suggest that local rainfall makes a significant contribution to groundwater recharge and that past lake-level variations in this desert environment should reflect palaeoclimatic changes. The chronology of lake-level change, established by radiocarbon and U-series disequilibrium dating methods, indicates high lake levels and a wetter climate beginning at ca. 10 ka and lasting until the late mid-Holocene in the Badain Jaran Desert. The greatest extension of lakes in the inter-dune depressions indicates that the water availability was greatest during the mid-Holocene. Relicts of Neolithic tools and pottery of Qijia Culture (2400–1900 BC) suggest relatively intensive human activity in the Badain Jaran Desert during the early and middle Holocene, supporting our interpretation of a less harsh environment. Wetter climates during the Holocene were likely triggered by an intensified East Asian summer monsoon associated with strong insolation.

Los Morteros (8°39'54"S, 78°42 '00"W) is located in coastal, northern Peru, one of the six original centers of world civilization. The site consists of a large, sand-covered, isolated prominence situated on a Mid-Holocene shoreline, ∽5 km from the present coast. Preceramic archaeological deposits (4040±75 to 4656±60 14C yr BP or ∽3600–5500 cal yr BP) cap this feature, which has been identified by prior researchers as a sand-draped, bedrock-cored landform or a relict dune deposit. Because neither explanation is geomorphologically probable, we used ground-penetrating radar (GPR) and high-resolution mapping to assess the mound's interior structure. Our results indicate an anthropogenic origin for Los Morteros, potentially placing it among the earliest monumental structures in prehistoric South America. The extremely arid setting raises new questions about the purpose and the logistics of early mound construction in this region. This work demonstrates the value of an integrated Quaternary sciences approach to assess long-term landscape change and to understand the interaction between humans and the environment.

Here, we present two high-resolution records of macroscopic charcoal from high-elevation lake sites in the Sierra Nevada, California, and evaluate the synchroneity of fire response for east- and west-side subalpine forests during the past 9200 yr. Charcoal influx was low between 11,200 and 8000 cal yr BP when vegetation consisted of sparse Pinus-dominated forest and montane chaparral shrubs. High charcoal influx after 8000 cal yr BP marks the arrival of Tsuga mertensiana and Abies magnifica, and a higher-than-present treeline that persisted into the mid-Holocene. Coeval decreases in fire episode frequency coincide with neoglacial advances and lower treeline in the Sierra Nevada after 3800 cal yr BP. Independent fire response occurs between 9200 and 5000 cal yr BP, and significant synchrony at 100- to 1000-yr timescales emerges between 5000 cal yr BP and the present, especially during the last 2500 yr. Indistinguishable fire-return interval distributions and synchronous fires show that climatic control of fire became increasingly important during the late Holocene. Fires after 1200 cal yr BP are often synchronous and corroborate with inferred droughts. Holocene fire activity in the high Sierra Nevada is driven by changes in climate linked to insolation and appears to be sensitive to the dynamics of the El Niño–Southern Oscillation.

The study presents the effect of soil erosion on vegetation, soil accumulation (SA), SA rate (SAR), soil quality, soil mass, and the soil organic carbon (SOC) pool in Brown Andosols and Histosols in a 24-km area in southwest Iceland. Undisturbed prehistoric soils were distinguished from disturbed historic soils using tephrochronology. Soil erosion has been severe during historic time (last 1135 yr), resulting in the increase of the soil mass deposited in soils covered by vegetation by a factor of 7.3–9.2 and net loss of soil in unvegetated areas. The SAR correlated positively with SOC sequestration. SOC is easily transported and given the extensive accumulation of soil, the net effect of burial and subsequent reduction in decomposition is to increase SOC storage. Nevertheless, the increased accumulation and soil depletion has decreased soil quality, including the SOC, and reduced soil resistance to erosion with the depleted SOC contributing to enrichment of atmospheric CO2. The initial terrestrial disturbance was triggered by anthropogenic land use during the Medieval Warm Period, followed by volcanic activity approximately three centuries later. The combination of harsh climate during the Little Ice Age and drastic anthropogenic perturbations has led to land degradation at a catastrophic scale.

The central Himalaya can be regarded as an ideal site for developing a long-term ice core dust record to reflect the environmental signals from regional to semi-hemispheric scales. Here we present a dust record from segments of a 108.83-m ice core recovered from the East Rongbuk (ER) Glacier (27°59′N, 86°55′E; 6518 m a.s.l.) on the northeast slope of Mt. Qomolangma (Everest) in the central Himalaya, covering the period AD 600–1960. Due to rapidly layer thinning and coarse sampling, we primarily discuss the changes in the dust record since AD 1500 in this paper. Results show a significant positive relationship between the dust concentration and reconstructed air temperatures during this period, suggesting a likely cold–humid and warm–dry climatic pattern in the dust source regions, namely Central Asia. This is associated with the variability in the strength of the westerlies and its corresponding precipitation.

The Dead Sea region holds the archives of a complex relationship between an ever-changing nature and ancient civilisations. Regional pollen diagrams show a Roman"Byzantine period standing out in the recent millennia by its wetter climate that allowed intensive arboriculture. During that period, the Dead Sea formed laminites that display mostly a seasonal character. A multidisciplinary study focused on two earthquakes, 31 BC and AD 363, recorded as seismites in the Ze"elim gully A unit III which has been well dated by radiocarbon in a previous study. The sampling of the sediment was done at an annual resolution starting from a few years before and finishing a decade after each earthquake. A clear drop in agricultural indicators (especially Olea and cereals) is shown. These pollen indicators mostly reflect human activities in the Judean Hills and coastal oases. Agriculture was disturbed in large part of the rift valley where earthquake damage affected irrigation and access to the fields. It took 4 to 5 yr to resume agriculture to previous conditions. Earthquakes must be seen as contributors to factors damaging societies. If combined with other factors such as climatic aridification, disease epidemics and political upheaval, they may lead to civilisation collapse.

During the Holocene, bison (Bison bison) were key components of the Great Plains landscape. This study utilizes serial stable isotope analyses (tooth enamel carbonate) of 29 individuals from five middle Holocene (∽ 7–8.5·ka) archaeological sites to address seasonal variability in movement patterns and grazing behavior of bison populations in the eastern Great Plains. Stable carbon isotopes (δ13C) indicate a bison diet that is similar to the C3/C4 composition of modern tallgrass prairies, while 87Sr/86Sr values generally indicate very little seasonal movement (b50 km) and relatively limited inter-annual movement (b500 km) over the course of 4–5 yr. Analyses of variability in serial stable oxygen isotope samples (δ18O) further substantiate a model of localized bison herds that adhered to upland areas of the eastern Plains and prairie–forest border.

The southern Peruvian coastal desert around Palpa, southern Peru (14.5°S) is currently characterized by hyper-arid conditions. However, the presence of two species of molluscs (Scutalus, Pupoides) and desert-loess deposits indicates the past development of semi-desert and grassland ecosystems caused by a displacement of the eastern desert margin due to hydrological changes. Radiocarbon dating shows that the transition to a semi-arid climate in the southern Peruvian coastal desert took place during the Greenland interstadial 1, ∼ 13.5 cal ka BP. At the beginning of the Holocene, the mollusc fauna vanished due to increasing humidity and the development of grasslands. Dust particles were fixed by the grasses, as indicated by abundant Poaceae phytoliths, and desert loess was formed. The humid period we observe here is out of phase with the palaeoenvironmental records from the Titicaca region, which indicates dry conditions at that time. This paper offers a new idea for this contradiction: an orbitally driven meridional shift of the Bolivian high might have altered the moisture supply across the Andes.

Biological communities in Mexico experienced profound changes in species composition and structure as a consequence of the environmental fluctuations during the Pleistocene. Based on the recent and fossil Mexican mammal checklists, we determine the distribution, composition, diversity, and community structure of late Pleistocene mammalian faunas, and analyze extinction patterns and response of individual species to environmental changes. We conclude that (1) differential extinctions occurred at family, genus, and species level, with a major impact on species heavier than 100 kg, including the extinction all proboscideans and several ruminants; (2) Pleistocene mammal communities in Mexico were more diverse than recent ones; and (3) the current assemblages of species are relatively young. Furthermore, Pleistocene relicts support the presence of biogeographic corridors; important refugia existed as well as centers of speciation in isolated regions. We identified seven corridors: eastern USA–Sierra Madre Oriental corridor, Rocky Mountains–Sierra Madre Occidental corridor, Central United States–Northern Mexico corridor, Transvolcanic Belt–Sierra Madre del Sur corridor, western USA–Baja California corridor, Tamaulipas–Central America gulf lowlands corridor, and Sonora–Central America Pacific lowlands corridor. Our study suggests that present mammalian assemblages are very different than the ones in the late Pleistocene.

Small, irregular terraces on hillslopes, or terracettes, are common landscape features throughout west central China. Despite their prevalence, there is limited understanding of the nature of these topographic features, the processes that form them, and the role humans played in their formation. We used an interdisciplinary approach to investigate the geology, ecology, and cultural history of terracette development within Jiuzhaigou National Park, Sichuan Province, China. Terracettes occur on south facing, 20° slopes at 2500 m elevation, which appears to coincide with places people historically preferred to build villages. Ethnographic interviews suggest that traditional swidden agricultural cycles removed tree roots, causing the loess sediments to lose cohesion, slump, and the terrace risers to retreat uphill over time. This evidence is supported by landslide debris at terracette faces. Archaeological analysis of terracette sites reveal remains of rammed spread soil structures, bones, stone tools, and ceramics dating from at least 2200 years before present within a distinct paleosol layer. Radiocarbon and optically stimulated luminescence dating of terracette sediments ranged in age from between 1500 and 2000 14C yr BP and between 16 and 0.30"ka, respectively. These multiple lines of evidence indicate a long history of human habitation within Jiuzhaigou National Park and taken together, suggest strong links between terracette formation and human-landuse interactions.

Proxy-based sea-level reconstructions place the instrumentally observed rates of recent sea-level rise in a longer term context by providing data that extend the instrumental sea-level record into past centuries. This paper presents the first sea-level reconstructions based on analyses of testate amoebae, to test their ability to produce high-precision reconstructions of past sea level. We present two reconstructions for the past 100"yr from sites in Maine (USA) and Nova Scotia (Canada) based on short cores from salt marshes, and modern training data from North America and the United Kingdom. These are compared with tide-gauge records and reconstructions based on foraminifera from the same cores. The reconstructions show good agreement with both the tide-gauge data and the foraminifera-based reconstructions. The UK data perform well in predicting known elevations of North American surface samples and produce sea-level reconstructions very similar to those based on the North American data, suggesting the methodology is robust across large geographical areas. We conclude that testate amoebae have the potential to provide robust, higher precision sea-level reconstructions for the past few centuries if modern transfer functions are improved and core sites are located within the main zone of testate amoebae occurrence on the salt marsh.

Closed basin playas are among the most sensitive hydrologic systems globally and are excellent indicators of current and past climatic variability. This variability can significantly impact hydrologic regimes and biotic communities, and is often expressed in lake-bed deposits and shoreline features. We analyzed two playa basins in western North America that lie to either side of the current divide between monsoon and westerly precipitation regimes. Using a 23-year sequence of Landsat images at a 16-day time step, we determined the playa inundation response to varying precipitation inputs. Our results show that a strongly contrasting lake-inundation response occurs in lake basins separated by only 200 km. The Animas/Lordsburg Basin shows a marked lake-area increase in response to winter precipitation events, while the more southerly Palomas Basin shows a stronger response to monsoonal and El Niño-type events. This sensitivity to different input sources over short distances may explain some of the apparent asynchronous behavior of playa response found in lake records. Comprehensive regional-scale inundation records could be used to understand the dynamics of playa inundation events and how these events are linked to atmospheric circulation, and possibly to understand the observed asynchronous behavior of lake basins during the late Pleistocene and Holocene.