In this paper we explore a speleothem δ18O record from Palestina cave, northwestern Peru, on the eastern side of the Andes cordillera, in the upper Amazon Basin. The δ18O record is interpreted as a proxy for South American Summer Monsoon (SASM) intensity and allows the reconstruction of its variability during the last 1600 years. Replicating regional climate signals from different sites and using different proxies is essential for a comprehensive understanding of past changes in SASM activity.

We have developed HadISDH, a new gridded global land monthly mean climate montitoring product for humidity and temperature from 1973 to then end of 2013 (updated annually) based entirely on in situ observations. Uncertainty estimates are provided. Over the period of record significant warming and increases in water vapour have taken place. The specific humidity trends have slowed since a peak in 1998 concurrent with decreasing relative humidity from 2000 onwards.

All regional monsoons belong to a cohesive global monsoon circulation system, albeit thateach regional subsystem has its own indigenous features. A comprehensive review of global monsoon variability reveals that regional monsoons can vary coherently across a range of timescales, from interannual up to orbital and tectonic. Study of monsoon variability from both global and regional perspectives is imperative and advantageous for integrated understanding of the modern and paleo-monsoon dynamics.

Using fossil pollen assemblages to trace vegetation response to relatively modest historical climate fluctuations is difficult. In this study, pollen data from a lake-sediment record in Queen Elizabeth National Park (Uganda) show that its landscape has been an open wooded savannah throughout the past 200 years, with known historical moisture-balance variation exerting modest effects on local tree cover (mostly Acacia and Ficus) and the occurrence of damp soil areas (promoting Phoenix palms).

Observational data sets contain uncertainties, e.g. from the instrument accuracy, as well as from the fact that usually only a single method is used in processing. We have performed an assessment of the size of the uncertainties associated with choices in the method used. The largest effects come from changes which affect the station network or the gridding method used. However, for the temperature indices in places with many stations, these changes have little effect on the long-term behaviour.

Temperature reconstructions for the Atlantic Water layer in Fram Strait have previously revealed a dramatic warming during the 20th century that is unprecedented in the last 2000 years. Our study presents results from climate model simulations over the last millennium that are able to reproduce such changes and relate them to increased oceanic heat transports to the Arctic and to a re-organization of the North Atlantic ocean circulation caused by global warming.

Annually laminated sediments from the NE Bering Sea reveal a decadal-scale correlation to Greenland ice core records during termination I, suggesting an atmospheric teleconnection. Lamination occurrence is tightly coupled to Bølling-Allerød and Preboreal warm phases. Increases in export production, closely coupled to SST and sea ice changes, are hypothesized to be a main cause of deglacial anoxia, rather than changes in overturning/ventilation rates of mid-depth waters entering the Bering Sea.

1. We have reconstructed new meridional thermal and precipitation stacked records in the Indo-Pacific Warm Pool (IPWP) during the last termination. 2. Meridional thermal gradient variations in the IPWP show tight links to the Northern Hemisphere millennial timescales event. 3. Anomalous warming in the south IPWP region could induce the southward shifting of the Intertropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ) in the IPWP during the Heinrich 1 and Younger Dryas events.