Based on a set of 12 intermediate deep ice cores, covering an area of about 200 000 km², we studied the spatial and temporal d18O patterns of northern Greenland over the past millennium and found a strong east-west gradient related to the main ice divide. A stacked record with significantly reduced noise revealed distinct climate variations with a pronounced Little Ice Age and distinct warm events such as the Medieval Climate Anomaly, around AD 1420 and in the 20th century.

Southern Hemisphere westerly airflow is considered a major driver of Southern Ocean and global climate. Observational records, however, are limited. Here we present a new Falkland Islands record that exploits "exotic" South America pollen and charcoal to reconstruct changing airflow. We find stronger winds 2000–1000 cal. yr BP, associated with increased burning, and a 250-year periodicity, suggesting solar forcing. Our results have important implications for understanding late Holocene climates.

This paper presents the δ18O result of an ice core recovered from Mt. Zangser Kangri (ZK), a remote area on the northern Tibetan Plateau (TP). We combined the δ18O series of ZK and three other nearby Tibetan ice cores to reconstruct a regional temperature history of 1951–2008, which captured the continuous rapid warming since 1970, even during the global warming hiatus period. It implied that temperature change could have behaved differently at high elevations.

We reconstruct late middle Eocene (42.0–38.5 Ma) pCO₂ based on the fossil leaves of Nageia maomingensis Jin et Liu collected from the Maoming Basin, Guangdong Province, China. This work indicates that the stomatal density (SD) inversely responds to pCO₂, while stomatal index (SI) has almost no relationship with pCO₂, using "modern" leaves of N. motleyi (Parl.) De Laub. Regression approach gives a pCO₂ of 351.9 ± 6.6 ppmv, whereas stomatal ratio method gives a pCO₂ of 537.5 ± 56.5 ppmv.

An integrated litho-, bio-, cyclo-, and magnetostratigraphy constrains the onset of a depositional environmental change from a lacustrine to a deltaic environment in the Maoming Basin, China, at 33.88 Ma. This coincides with the global cooling during the Eocene-Oligocene transition (EOT) at ~ 33.7–33.9 Ma. This change represents terrestrial responses of low-latitude Asia to the EOT. The greatly refined chronology permits detailed examination of the late Paleogene climate change in southeast Asia.

Based on the study of ancient microfossils, such as pollen and spores, this paper explores climate change in a Mediterranean island context. Using a multi-disciplinary approach this original research corroborates existing archaeological and historical data. It also uses comparative data from elsewhere in the central Mediterranean to ensure that the current research is placed within the appropriate geographic context.

The long-term response of the flood activity to both Atlantic and Mediterranean climatic influences was explored by reconstructing the Foréant record. Both influences result in a higher flood frequency during past cold periods. Atlantic influences seem to result in more frequent high-intensity flood events during past warm periods, suggesting an increase in flood intensity under the global warming. However, no high-intensity events occurred during the 20th century.

An Earth system model was set up and applied to evaluate the effects of sea-level change, ocean dynamics, and nutrient utilization on seawater composition and atmospheric pCO₂ over the last glacial cycle. The model results strongly suggest that global sea-level change contributed significantly to the slow glacial decline in atmospheric pCO₂ and the gradual pCO₂ increase over the Holocene whereas the rapid deglacial pCO₂ rise was induced by fast changes in ocean dynamics and nutrient utilization.

We present a review of chronological dating from ca. 1100 fossil pollen records in Central and South America. Additionally, a temporal quality assessment is implemented on 292 records from northwest South America, which include recalibrating 234 age models. This method evaluates uncertainties for inferred sample ages and chronologies. Important time windows on centennial-millennial climate variability are discussed for sample resolution (estimated years/sample) and temporal uncertainty.

We present here for the first time a very high-resolution record of sea-surface temperature changes in the Boreal Chalk Sea for the last 8 million years of the Cretaceous. This record was obtained from 1932 bulk oxygen isotope measurements, and their interpretation into temperature trends is validated by similar trends observed from changes in phytoplankton assemblages.

Our manuscript "Fossil plant stomata indicate decreasing atmospheric CO₂ prior to the Eocene–Oligocene boundary" reports that ~ 40 % decrease in pCO₂ preceded the large shift in marine oxygen isotope records that characterizes the Eocene–Oliogocene climate transition. The results endorse the theory that pCO₂ drawdown was the main forcer of the Eocene–Oligocene climate change, and a "tipping point" was reached in the latest Eocene, triggering the plunge of the Earth System into icehouse conditions.

In this paper, we assess how well model-simulated precipitation rates compare to those indicated by geological data for the early Eocene, a warm interval 56–49 million years ago. Our results show that a number of models struggle to produce sufficient precipitation at high latitudes, which likely relates to cool simulated temperatures in these regions. However, calculating precipitation rates from plant fossils is highly uncertain, and further data are now required.

This paper serves as a guide to high-quality pollen records in South America that capture environmental variability during the last 2 millennia. We identify the pollen records suitable for climate modelling and discuss their sensitivity to the spatial signature of climate modes. Furthermore, evidence for human land use in pollen records is useful for archaeological hypothesis testing and important in distinguishing natural from anthropogenically driven vegetation change.

We propose a Bayesian model for the reconstruction and analysis of former sea levels. The model provides a single, unifying framework for reconstructing and analyzing sea level through time with fully quantified uncertainty. We illustrate our approach using a case study of Common Era (last 2000 years) sea levels from New Jersey.

The polar warmth of the greenhouse climates in the Earth's past represents a fundamentally different climate state to that of today, with a strongly reduced temperature difference between the Equator and the poles. It is commonly thought that this would lead to a more quiescent ocean, with much reduced ventilation of the abyss. Surprisingly, using a Cretaceous cimate model, we find that ocean overturning is not weaker under a reduced temperature gradient arising from amplified polar heat.

The meteorological diary of Reverend Richard Davis (1839–1844; 1848–1851) is the earliest continuous daily instrumental weather observation record for New Zealand. It pre-dates James Hector's meteorological network by more than 20 years, and it contains evidence that temperatures for May–August were on average colder than present day in Northland. Some weather extremes Davis also witnessed may have been more frequent in the mid-1800s relative to the modern era, including frost, ice and snow.

We analyze the vegetation and climate in northwestern Turkey during the last ca. 31 000 years based on a new pollen data set from lacustrine sediment cores. The study reveals vegetation responses to long-term and rapid climate changes. Moreover, it documents human activities in the catchment of Lake Iznik and shows a clear anthropogenic impact on the vegetation since the Early Bronze Age.