The behaviour of dust in terms of climate can be investigated using past climate. The Last Glacial Maximum (LGM; 21000 years before present) is known to be dustier. We investigated the impact of plausible dust distribution on the climate of the LGM using an Earth system model and found that the higher dust load results in less cooling over the polar regions. The main finding is that radiative perturbation by the high dust loading does not necessarily cool the surface surrounding Antarctica.

Air–ground temperature coupling is the central assumption of borehole temperature reconstructions. Here, this premise is assessed from a pseudo-reality perspective by considering last millennium ensembles of simulations from the Community Earth System Model. The results show that long-term variations in the energy fluxes at the surface during industrial times, due to the influence of external forcings, impact the long-term air–ground temperature coupling.

Abundances of plant biomarkers are compared with pollen data in a 3000-year climate archive covering the Late Glacial to Holocene transition in northern Poland. Both parameters synchronously show the rapid onset (12680–12600 yr BP) and termination (11580–11490 yr BP) of the Younger Dryas cold interval in the study area. This demonstrates the suitability of such proxies to record pronounced changes in vegetation cover without significant delay.

Vanillic acid is reported in the Tunu ice core from northeastern Greenland. It is an aerosol-borne acid produced by biomass burning. North American boreal forests are likely the source regions of the vanillic acid deposited at the ice core site. Vanillic acid levels were elevated during warm climate periods and lower during cooler climate periods. There is a positive correlation between the vanillic acid ice core record and ammonium and black carbon in the NEEM ice core from northern Greenland.

This work documents major oceanographic changes that occurred in the N. Atlantic from 812 to 530 ka and were related to the mid-Pleistocene transition. Since ~ 650 ka, glacials were more prolonged and intense than before. Larger ice sheets may have worked as a positive feedback mechanism to prolong the duration of glacials. We explore the connection between the change in the N. Atlantic oceanography and the enhanced ice-sheet growth, which contributed to the change of cyclicity in climate.

We measured biomarker production over a year in a small inland lake in the northeastern USA. Understanding biomarkers in the modern environment helps us improve reconstructions of past climate from lake sediment records. We use these results to interpret a 900-year decadally resolved temperature record from this lake. Our record highlights multi-decadal oscillations in temperature superimposed on a long-term cooling trend, providing novel insight into climate dynamics of the region.

Climate reorganization during the early neoglacial anomaly (ENA) may explain the Harappan civilization metamorphosis from an urban, expansive culture to a rural, geographically-confined one. Landcover change is a candidate for causing this climate instability. During ENA agriculture along the flood-deficient floodplains of the Indus became too risky, which pushed people out. In the same time the Himalayan piedmont received augmented winter rain and steady summer precipitation, pulling people in.

The link between the surface mass balance components of the Greenland Ice Sheet and both phases of the NAO is examined under preindustrial and warmer and colder climates of the last interglacial from simulations performed with CNRM-CM5.2. Accumulation in south Greenland is correlated with positive (negative) phases of the NAO in a warm (cold) climate. Melting under a warm (cold) climate is correlated with the negative (positive) phase of the NAO in north and northeast Greenland (at the margins).

We report a high-resolution study of a 5000-year-long peat record from the Falkland Islands. This area sensitive to the dynamics of the Amundsen Sea Low, which plays a major role in modulating the Southern Ocean climate. We find wetter, colder conditions between 5.0 and 2.5 ka due to enhanced southerly airflow, with the establishment of drier and warmer conditions from 2.5 ka to present. This implies more westerly airflow and the increased projection of the ASL onto the South Atlantic.

We present the first marine pollen record of the early Pliocene from western equatorial South America. Our reconstruction of the vegetation aims to provide insights into hydrological changes related to tectonic events (Central American Seaway closure, uplift of the Northern Andes). We find stable humid conditions, suggesting a southern location of the Intertropical Convergence Zone. The presence of high montane vegetation indicates an early uplift of the Western Cordillera of the northern Andes.

The last glacial period was characterized by a number of rapid climate changes seen, for example, as abrupt warmings in Greenland and changes in monsoon rainfall intensity. However, due to chronological uncertainties it is challenging to know how tightly coupled these changes were. Here we exploit cosmogenic signals caused by changes in the Sun and Earth magnetic fields to link different climate archives and improve our understanding of the dynamics of abrupt climate change.

We present a past sea surface temperature and paleoproductivity record over the last 150 000 years for ODP Site 1234 (Chilean margin). We tested the applicability of long-chain diol proxies for the reconstrucion of SST (LDI), past upwelling conditions (diol index), and nutrient concentrations (NDI). The LDI likely reflects past temperature changes, but the diol index and NDI are perhaps more indicative of Proboscia diatom productivity rather than upwelling and/or nutrient conditions.

The collapses of several Neolithic cultures in China are considered to have been associated with abrupt climate change during the 4.2 ka BP event; however, the hydroclimate of this event in China is still poorly known. Based on stalagmite records from monsoonal China, we found that north China was dry but south China was wet during this event. We propose that the rain belt remained longer at its southern position, giving rise to a pronounced humidity gradient between north and south China.

A data-based reconstruction of carbon-bearing deep-sea sediment shows significant changes in the global burial rate over the last glacial cycle. We calculate the impact of these deep-sea changes, as well as hypothetical changes in continental shelf burial and volcanic outgassing. Our results imply that these geological fluxes had a significant impact on ocean chemistry and the global carbon isotopic ratio, and that the natural carbon cycle was not in steady state during the Holocene.