The extent of social isolation experienced by people living with dementia who reside in the community has been well acknowledged, yet little is known about how people living alone with dementia maintain neighbourhood-based connections. The purpose of this study is to examine the experiences of people with dementia who live alone, focusing upon how they establish social networks and relationships in a neighbourhood context, and how they are supported to maintain this social context within everyday life. Multiple data collection methods were used including, semi-structured interviews, walking interviews, guided home tours and social network mapping, which were conducted with 14 community-dwelling people living alone with dementia (11 women and three men) situated across the three international study sites in England, Scotland and Sweden. Data were analysed using thematic analysis. The analysis revealed four main themes: (a) making the effort to stay connected; (b) befriending by organisations and facilitated friendships; (c) the quiet neighbourhood atmosphere; and (d) changing social connections. The analysis suggests that people with dementia who live alone were active agents who took control to find and maintain relationships and social networks in the neighbourhood. Our findings indicate the need to raise awareness about this specific group in both policy and practice, and to find creative ways to help people connect through everyday activities and by spontaneous encounters in the neighbourhood.

Little is known about terrestrial climate dynamics in the Levant during the penultimate interglacial-glacial period. To decipher the palaeoclimatic history of the Marine Oxygen Isotope Stage (MIS) 6 glacial period, a well-dated stalagmite (~194 to ~154 ka) from Kanaan Cave on the Mediterranean coast in Lebanon was analyzed for its petrography, growth history, and stable isotope geochemistry. A resolved climate record has been recovered from this precisely U–Th dated speleothem, spanning the late MIS 7 and early MIS 6 at low resolution and the mid–MIS 6 at higher resolution. The stalagmite grew discontinuously from ~194 to ~163 ka. More consistent growth and higher growth rates between ~163 and ~154 ka are most probably linked to increased water recharge and thus more humid conditions. More distinct layering in the upper part of the speleothem suggests strong seasonality from ~163 ka to ~154 ka. Short-term oxygen and carbon isotope excursions were found between ~155 and ~163 ka. The inferred Kanaan Cave humid intervals during the mid–MIS 6 follow variations of pollen records in the Mediterranean basins and correlate well with the synthetic Greenland record and East Asian summer monsoon interstadial periods, indicating short warm/wet periods similar to the Dansgaard-Oeschger events during MIS 4–3 in the eastern Mediterranean region.

New speleothem records from northeastern Iberian caves provide data to explore the climatic patterns during the Holocene. We present δ13C and Mg/Ca from three speleothems from two different caves located in the Iberian Range allowing replication of the climatic signal for several millennia. Through the integration of those stalagmites covering since the Holocene onset to 2 ka, the early Holocene (11.7–8.5 ka) appears as the wettest interval. A marked change towards aridity is observed during the middle Holocene (8.5–4.8 ka) and an increase of humidity afterwards (4.8–2 ka). This three-part pattern, contrasting with other Iberian sequences, seems to be associated with the different role that seasonality has played in the response of different proxies (or records) to changes in water availability. Interpreting our speleothem records as changes in winter-spring precipitation along the Holocene allows reconciling previous data on hydrological variability from the western Mediterranean borderlands.

Uranium-series dating and stable isotope analyses of two speleothems from northwest Nelson, New Zealand, record changes in regional climate and local forest extent over the past 31,000 years. Oxygen isotope variation in these speleothems primarily represents changes in the meteoric waters falling above the caves, possibly responding to latitudinal changes in the position of the Subtropical Front in the Tasman Sea. Seven positive excursions can be identified in the oxygen isotope record, which coincide with periods of glacier advance, known to be sensitive to northward movement of the Subtropical Front. Four glacier advances occurred during oxygen isotope stage 2, with the most extreme glacial conditions centered on 19,000 cal yr B.P. An excursion in the oxygen isotope record from 13,800 to 11,700 cal yr B.P. provides support for a previously identified New Zealand glacier advance at the time of the Younger Dryas Stade, but suggests it began slightly before the Younger Dryas as recorded in Greenland ice cores. Carbon isotope variations in the speleothems record changes in forest productivity, closely matching existing paleovegetation records. On the basis of vegetation changes, stage 2 glacial climate conditions terminated abruptly in central New Zealand, from 15,700 to 14,200 cal yr B.P. Evidence of continuous speleothem growth at one site suggests that depression of the local treeline was limited to 600–700 m below its present altitude, throughout the last 31,000 years.

The drainage area of the Iberian Ranges (NE Spain) houses one of the most extensive Quaternary fluvial tufaceous records in Europe. In this study, tufa deposits in the Añamaza, Mesa, Piedra and Ebrón river valleys were mapped, stratigraphically described and chronologically referenced from U/Th disequilibrium series, amino acid racemization and radiocarbon methods. Tufa deposits accumulated in cascades, barrage-cascades and related damming areas developed in stepped fluvial systems. The maximum frequency of tufa deposition was identified at 120 ka (Marine Oxygen Isotope Stage [MIS] 5e), 102 ka (MIS 5c), 85 ka (~ MIS 5a) and 7 ka (MIS 1), probably under warmer and wetter conditions than today. Additional phases of tufa deposition appear at ~ 353 ka (~ end of MIS 11), 258–180 ka (MIS 7) and 171–154 ka (MIS 6). Although most tufa deposition episodes are clearly correlated with interstadial periods, the occurrence of tufa deposits during the penultimate glaciation (MIS 6) is remarkable, indicating that the onset of this stage was climatically favourable in the Iberian Peninsula. Biostatic conditions and the dynamics of karstic systems regulating tufa deposition seem to be sensitive to the precipitation regime, controlled by shifts in the position of North Atlantic atmospheric belts, and summer insolation, regulated by orbital forcing.

The tufa deposits of the Ghaap Plateau escarpment provide a rich, yet minimally explored, geological archive of climate and environmental history coincident with hominin evolution in South Africa. This study examines the sedimentary and geochemical records of ancient and modern tufas from Buxton-Norlim Limeworks, Groot Kloof, and Gorrokop, to assess the potential of these sediments for providing reliable chronologies of high-resolution, paleoenvironmental information. Chronometric dating demonstrates that tufa formation has occurred from at least the terminal Pliocene through to the modern day. The stable isotope records show a trend toward higher, more variable δ18O and δ13C values with decreasing age from the end of the Pliocene onwards. The long-term increase in δ18O values corresponds to increasingly arid conditions, while increasing δ13C values reflect the changing proportion of C3/C4 vegetation in the local environment. Analysis of the Thabaseek Tufa, in particular, provides valuable evidence for reconstructing the depositional and chronological context of the enigmatic Taung Child (Australopithecus africanus). Collectively, the results of the present study demonstrate the potential of these deposits for developing high-precision records of climate change and ultimately, for understanding the causal processes relating climate and hominin evolution.

Relatively few radiometrically dated records are available for the central Mediterranean spanning the marine oxygen isotope stage 6–5 (MIS 6–5) transition and the first part of the Last Interglacial. Two flowstone cores from Tana che Urla Cave (TCU, central Italy), constrained by 19 U/Th ages, preserve an interval of continuous speleothem deposition between ca. 159 and 121 ka. A multiproxy record (δ18O, δ13C, growth rate and petrographic changes) obtained from this flowstone preserves significant regional-scale hydrological changes through the glacial/interglacial transition and multi-centennial variability (interpreted as alternations between wetter and drier periods) within both glacial and interglacial stages. The glacial stage shows a wetter period between ca. 154 and 152 ka, while the early to middle Last Interglacial period shows several drying events at ca. 129, 126 and 122 ka, which can be placed in the wider context of climatic instability emerging from North Atlantic marine and NW European terrestrial records. The TCU record also provides important insights into the evolution of local environmental conditions (i.e. soil development) in response to regional and global-scale climate events.

The Castañar Cave (central western Spain) formed in mixed carbonate–siliciclastic rocks of Neoproterozoic age. The host rock is finely bedded and shows a complex network of folds and fractures, with a prevalent N150E strike. This structure controlled the development and the maze pattern of the cave, as well as its main water routes. The cave formed more than 350 ka ago as the result of both the dissolution of interbedded carbonates and weathering of siliciclastic beds, which also promoted collapse of the overlying host rock. At present it is a totally vadose hypergenic cave, but its initial development could have been phreatic. The cave's speleothems vary widely in their morphology and mineralogy. In general, massive speleothems (stalactites, stalagmites, flowstones, etc.) are associated with the main fractures of the cave and bedding planes. These discontinuities offer a fairly continuous water supply. Other branching, fibrous, mostly aragonite speleothems, commonly occur in the steeper cave walls and were produced by capillary seepage or drip water. Detailed petrographical and isotope analyses indicate that both aragonite and calcite precipitated as primary minerals in the cave waters. Primary calcite precipitated in waters of low magnesium content, whereas aragonite precipitated from magnesium-rich waters. Differences in isotope values for calcite (−5.2 ‰ for δ18O and −9.6 ‰ for δ13C) and aragonite (δ18O of −4.5 ‰ and δ13C of −3.5 ‰) can be explained by the fact that the more unstable mineral (aragonite) tends to incorporate the heavier C isotope to stabilize its structure or that aragonite precipitates in heavier waters. Changes in the water supply and the chemistry and instability of aragonite caused: (1) inversion of aragonite to calcite, which led to the transformation of aragonite needles into coarse calcite mosaics, (2) micritization, which appears as films or crusts of powdery, opaque calcite, and (3) dissolution. Dolomite, huntite, magnesite and sepiolite were identified within moonmilk deposits and crusts. Moonmilk occurs as a soft, white powder deposit on different types of speleothems, but mostly on aragonite formations. Huntite and magnesite formed as primary minerals, whereas dolomite arose via the replacement of both huntite and aragonite. Owing to its variety of speleothems and location in an area of scarce karstic features, the Castañar Cave was declared a Natural Monument in 1997 and is presently the target of a protection and research programme. Although the main products formed in the cave and their processes are relatively well known, further radiometric data are needed to better constrain the timing of these processes. For example, it is difficult to understand why some aragonite speleothems around 350 ka old have not yet given way to calcite, which indicates that the environmental setting of the cave is still not fully understood.

The late Quaternary glacial history of the Amery Oasis, and Prince Charles Mountains is of significant interest because about 10% of the total modern Antarctic ice outflow is discharged via the adjacent Lambert Glacier system. A glacial thrust moraine sequence deposited along the northern shoreline of Radok Lake between 20–10 ka bp, overlies a layer of thin, aragonite crusts which provide important constraints on the glacial history of the Amery Oasis. The modern Radok Lake is fed by the terminal meltwaters of the alpine Battye Glacier. The aragonite crusts were deposited in shallow water of ancestral Radok Lake 53 ka bp, during the A3 warm event in Isotope Stage 3. Oxygen isotope (δ18O) analysis of the last glacial-age aragonite crusts indicates that they precipitated from freshwater with a δ18OSMOW composition of -36%, which is 8% more depleted than the present water (-28%) in Radok Lake. A regional oxygen isotope (δ18O) and elevation relationship for snow is used to determine the source of meltwater and glacial ice in Radok Lake during the A3 warm event. This relationship indicates that Radok Lake received meltwater from the confluence of both Battye Glacier ice and an expansion of grounded western Lambert Glacier ice in the Amery embayment.