Clarifying the paleoelevation changes of Diancang Shan (DCS) is important for comprehending both tectonics and the climatic effects in the transition zone between the high Tibetan Plateau and the lower relief of eastern and southern Asia. Our results show low elevations of DCS between ~ 7.6 and ~ 5.0 Ma, followed by significant uplift of 1000–2000 m between ~ 5.0 and ~ 3.5 Ma. They provide a novel method for reconstructing the paleoelevation of mountains like DCS in orogenic belts.

The simultaneity of rain and heat is an important hypothesis containing the summer and winter precipitation regimes. In this paper, eastern and part of central Asia (EA and CA) with a summer precipitation regime are selected to study the dry/wet status on multiple timescales since the Last Glacial Maximum. We found that although climate difference in EA and CA universally exists, climate linkages in EA and part of CA with a summer precipitation regime can be uncovered.

Dansgaard–Oeschger events are a series of abrupt past climate change events during which the atmosphere, sea ice, and ocean in the North Atlantic underwent rapid changes. One current topic of interest is the order in which these different changes occurred, which remains unknown. In this work, we find that the current best method used to investigate this topic is subject to substantial bias. This implies that it is not possible to reliably determine the order of the different changes.

Our study collected 63 historical documents on the extreme heat of 1743 from three kinds of historical materials. Using text analysis methods, such as keyword extraction, grading, and classification, we reconstructed the 1743 extreme heat event. This heat event developed cumulatively, and the key areas affected are consistent with those impacted in modern times. Timely cooling and reducing exposure have been limited but necessary means of addressing extreme heat in both ancient and modern times.

The Indo-Pacific Pollen Database is a large collection of pollen samples from across the Indo-Pacific region, with most samples coming from Australia. This is a valuable collection that can be used to analyse vegetation dynamics going back thousands of years. It is now being fully shared via Neotoma for the first time, opening up many exciting new avenues of research. This paper presents key aspects of this database, including geographical distribution, age control and deposition times.

We use existing palaeoclimate data and a statistical model to predict atmospheric CO₂ concentrations across the Mid-Pleistocene Transition. Our prediction assumes that the relationship between CO₂ and benthic ẟ¹⁸O_calcite over the past 800 000 years can be extended over the last 1.8 million years. We find no clear evidence from existing blue ice or proxy-based CO₂ data to reject the predicted record. A definitive test awaits analysis of continuous oldest ice core records from Antarctica.

The ice-rafted debris signature of Heinrich events in marine sedimentary cores is usually attributed to massive ice discharge from the Laurentide Ice Sheet. However, the driving mechanism of this pulsed discharge remains  unclear. We compare three previously proposed hypotheses and examine the role of relevant system processes. We find ice stream surge cycling is the most likely mechanism, but its character is sensitive to both the geothermal heat flux and the form of the basal drag law.

The chemical records contained in a 12 m firn (ice) core from Peter I Island, a remote sub-Antarctic island situated in the Pacific sector of the Southern Ocean (the Bellingshausen Sea), capture changes in snowfall and temperature (2002–2017 CE). This data-sparse region has experienced dramatic climate change in recent decades, including sea ice decline and ice loss from adjacent West Antarctic glaciers. 

Antarctic ice cores provide information about past temperatures. Here, we run new climate model simulations, including stable water isotopes for the historical period. Across one-third of Antarctica, there is no strong connection between isotopes and temperature and a weak connection for most of the rest of Antarctica. This disconnect between isotopes and temperature is largely driven by changes in Antarctic sea ice. Our results are helpful for temperature reconstructions from ice core records.

Desert dust plays a crucial role in the climate system; while it is relatively well studied for the present day, we still lack knowledge on how it was in the past and on its underlying mechanism in the multi-million-year timescale of Earth’s history. For the first time, we simulate dust emissions using the newly developed DUSTY1.0 model over the past 540 million years with a temporal resolution of ~5 million years. We find that palaeogeography is the primary control of these variations.

Rather than reverting to a dedicated paleoclimate chapter, knowledge about pre-industrial climate should be further integrated with other lines of evidence throughout the next assessment reports by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.