Sediment cores with new radiocarbon dates from the southern outlet of glacial Lake Agassiz indicate that meltwater delivery to the Mississippi valley was disrupted at 10,800 14C yr B.P. and the outlet was abandoned by 9400 14C yr B.P. These findings confirm the timing of generally accepted terminations of the Lockhart and Emerson Phases of Lake Agassiz. Additionally, the radiocarbon chronology indicates that the spillway was fully formed by 10,800 14C yr B.P. and that the occupancy in late-Emerson time was likely short-lived with minimal spillway erosion.

A high-resolution chronology for Peoria (last glacial period) Loess from three sites in Nebraska, midcontinental North America, is determined by applying optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) dating to 35–50 μm quartz. At Bignell Hill, Nebraska, an OSL age of 25,000 yr near the contact of Peoria Loess with the underlying Gilman Canyon Formation shows that dust accumulation occurred early during the last glacial maximum (LGM), whereas at Devil’s Den and Eustis, Nebraska, basal OSL ages are significantly younger (18,000 and 21,000 yr, respectively). At all three localities, dust accumulation ended at some time after 14,000 yr ago. Mass accumulation rates (MARs) for western Nebraska, calculated using the OSL ages, are extremely high from 18,000 to 14,000 yr—much higher than those calculated for any other pre-Holocene location worldwide. These unprecedented MARs coincide with the timing of a mismatch between paleoenvironmental evidence from central North America, and the paleoclimate simulations from atmospheric global circulation models (AGCMs). We infer that the high atmospheric dust loading implied by these MARs may have played an important role, through radiative forcing, in maintaining a colder-than-present climate over central North America for several thousand years after summer insolation exceeded present-day values.

Fossil beetles from two last interglacial lake deposits from southern Wairarapa, central New Zealand are provisionally ascribed to marine oxygen isotope stages (MIS) 5a–e. Both assemblages represent ecological successions from lake margins to forest. The lower sample (MIS 5e) is characterized by species found today in northern New Zealand. These species, including Lorelus crassicornis, ‘Dasytes’ laticeps, Cryptobius nitidius, ‘Stenomalium’ sulcithorax, Psilocnaeia nana, and Microbrontes lineatus, represent a southward displacement from modern distributions by up to 700 km. Climate reconstruction indicates that temperatures at the time of deposition were 1.6–2.5°C warmer in the summer (January) and 2.3–3.2°C warmer in the winter (July) than at present. These results match local and regional pollen and phytolith findings of warmer, wetter conditions at the thermal maximum of the last interglaciation. In contrast, the upper sample is characterized by species that have widespread modern-day distributions. This indicates that modern conditions were attained later in MIS5, after the MIS 5e thermal maximum.

Paleolake sediment, constrained by tephrochronology, from Onepoto basin volcanic crater in Auckland, Northern New Zealand (36° 48′S), provides one of the few uninterrupted records of paleovegetation for marine oxygen isotope stages (MIS) 4 and 3 (76,000–26,000 yr B.P.) in the region. This period was characterized by cool temperate conifer-hardwood forest that lacked some of the warmer taxa typical of the Holocene. The period 64,400–60,500 yr B.P. was marked by opening of forest canopy and expansion of small trees and shrubs, and correlates to the thermal minima of MIS 4. However, the landscape was never as open as the forest-shrubland mosaic of the MIS 2. The beginning of MIS 3 (60,500–50,500 yr B.P.) was marked by the dramatic expansion and then decline of conifer-hardwood forest dominated by Dacrydium cupressinum, a species that prefers wetter conditions. This forest was succeeded by the typically montane Nothofagus at 50,500 yr B.P., corresponding to a thermal decline. Thus, MIS 3 began with an abrupt change to moist cool conditions that lasted about 5000 yr, followed by gradual cooling and dryer conditions. This supports some interpretations from other parts of the southwest Pacific region, that MIS 3 was a period of increased precipitation. The widespread and stratigraphically important Rotoehu tephra, erupted from Okataina Volcanic Centre, has been variously dated at 45,000–65,000 yr B.P. At Onepoto, sedimentation rate and paleovegetation reconstruction imply an age of c. 44,300 yr B.P. The tephra provides a correlation horizon in the marine and terrestrial realms during a period (MIS 3) difficult to date by radiometric methods.

Pollen from the upper 90 m of core OL-92 from Owens Lake is a climatically sensitive record of vegetation change that indicates shifts in the plant associations representing warm and cold desertscrub, pinyon–juniper woodland, and pine–fir forest during the past 180,000 years. These changes are synchronized with glacial–interglacial cycles. During glacial and stadial climates, juniper woodland expanded downslope and replaced warm desert shrubs while upper montane and subalpine forests in the arid Inyo Mountains also expanded, and those in the Sierra Nevada were displaced by the ice cap and periglacial conditions. Conversely, during interglacial and interstadial climates, warm desert plants expanded their range in the lowlands, juniper and sagebrush retreated upslope, and montane and subalpine forests expanded in the Sierra Nevada. The reconstructed vegetation history demonstrates a regional climatic response, and the congruence of the pollen sequence with marine and ice cap oxygen isotope stratigraphies suggests a link between regional vegetation and global climate change at orbital scales.

An Early Pleistocene fluvio-lacustrine sequence from the extremely arid southern Negev desert, Israel, indicates that climatic conditions during that period were humid enough to support the formation of a lake (Lake Zihor) there. The lacustrine sediments were deposited in a tectonic valley that developed along the Zihor tectonic line after the deposition of the Pliocene Arava Formation. They intercalate with fluvial sediments that contain several horizons of reddish calcic paleosols. The lacustrine sequence comprises three sedimentary cycles. Each starts with a dark clay layer overlain by a white limestone unit, both of which contain abundant freshwater fauna, and terminates with a green detrital limestone that contains only one type of brackish-water ostracod. The top of each green limestone unit is characterized by pedogenic features and microrelief, indicating desiccation of the lake and soil development. Isotope data support the hypothesis that the white limestone was deposited in an open, freshwater lake. The incision of the present channel of Nahal (wadi) Zihor in the lacustrine sediments is manifested by a series of rock-cut and fluvial terraces (Q1–Q4) capped by gypsic-salic soils, which reflect the onset of the present, extremely arid climate. Over 100 find-spots and larger occurrences of prehistoric artifacts assigned to the Lower Paleolithic were discovered near Lake Zihor. On the basis of techno-typological and stratigraphic considerations, these assemblages are divided into two groups, the first of which may be contemporaneous with the lake, while the second is found mainly on the younger Q1 and Q2 terraces. It is estimated that the lake existed for more than 100,000 years. The climate during this period was probably semiarid, but water budget calculations suggest that, in addition to surface runoff, seepage of groundwater along the Zihor Line contributed a considerable amount of water to the lake.

Palaeolithic people commonly hunted Equus hydruntinus, an extinct species of equid whose cursorial body proportions suggest an adaptation to semi-arid conditions. Despite the frequency with which it is encountered in fossil deposits, only partial cranial remains have been reported until now. As a result, the systematic affiliation of the species remains a subject of controversy. Two nearly complete E. hydruntinus crania are presented here for the first time. These skulls show that E. hydruntinus is a distinct species, more closely related to the hemiones (Asiatic asses) than to any other equid. This suggests that the social organisation of E. hydruntinus followed one of two known equid sociotypes: resource defense territoriality.

The location of South Georgia (54°S, 36°W) makes it a suitable site for the study of the climatic connections between temperate and polar environments in the Southern Hemisphere. Because the mass balance of the small cirque glaciers on South Georgia primarily responds to changes in summer temperature they can provide records of changes in the South Atlantic Ocean and atmospheric circulation. We use grey scale density, weight-loss-on-ignition, and grain size analyses to show that the proportion of glacially eroded sediments to organic sediments in Block Lake was highly variable during the last 7400 cal yr B.P. We expect that the glacial signal is clearly detectable above noise originating from nonglacial processes and assume that an increase in glacigenic sediment deposition in Block Lake has followed Holocene glacier advances. We interpret proglacial lake sediment sequences in terms of summer climate warming and cooling events. Prominent millennial-scale features include cooling events between 7200 and 7000, 5200 and 4400, and 2400 and 1600 cal yr B.P. and after 1000 cal yr B.P. Comparison with other terrestrial and marine records reveals that the South Georgian record captures all the important changes in Southern Hemisphere Holocene climate. Our results reveal a tentative coupling between climate changes in the South Atlantic and North Atlantic because the documented temperature changes on South Georgia are anti-phased to those in the North Atlantic.