In this study, we assess Antarctic tipping points which may had been crossed during the mid-Pliocene Warm Period. For this, we use data from the PlioMIP2 ensemble. Additionally, we investigate various sources of uncertainty, like ice dynamics and bedrock configuration. Our research significantly enhances our comprehension of Antarctica's response to a warming climate, shedding light on potential future tipping points that may be surpassed.

During the last ice age (21 000 yr BP) in Europe, the composition and extent of forest and its associated climate remain unclear, with models indicating more forest north of the Alps and a warmer and somewhat wetter climate than suggested by the data. A new compilation of pollen records with improved dating suggests greater agreement with model climates but still suggests models overestimate forest cover, especially in the west.

We have created a new global surface temperature reconstruction of the climate of the mid-Pliocene Warm Period, representing the period roughly 3.2 million years before the present day. We estimate that the globally averaged mean temperature was around 3.9 °C warmer than it was in pre-industrial times, but there is significant uncertainty in this value.

We present a climate simulation using version 2.3 of the Meteorological Research Institute's Coupled General Circulation Model (MRI-CGCM2.3) to examine the impact of insolation changes on East Asian summer monsoon variability over the past 450 kyr. We show that changes in summer insolation over East Asia led to distinct climatic responses in China and Japan, driven by altered atmospheric circulation due to the intensification of the North Pacific subtropical high and the North Pacific High.

Some ionic components slowly move through glacier ice by diffusion, but the rate of this diffusion, its exact mechanism(s), and the factors that might influence it are poorly understood. In this study, we model how peaks in sulfate, deposited at Dome C on the Antarctic ice sheet after volcanic eruptions, change with depth and time. We find that the sulfate diffusion rate in ice is relatively fast in young ice near the surface, but the rate is markedly reduced over time.

The voyages of Cook (1772–1775) and Bellingshausen (1819–1821) were attempts to find a southern land mass. Sea ice blocked each voyage's southern probes, but sea ice and iceberg records were collected from around Antarctica. They show more northerly records of both forms of marine ice than today. The early Pacific sector of the Southern Ocean saw marine ice within the range of modern observations, but the Weddell Sea and Indian Ocean marine ice then extended further north than today.

Sea level rise and global climate change caused by ice melt in Antarctica represent a puzzle of feedbacks between the climate, ocean, and ice sheets over tens to thousands of years. Antarctic Ice Sheet melting is caused mainly by warm deep water from the Southern Ocean. Here, we analyse close relationships between deep water temperatures and global climate over the last 800 000 years. This knowledge can help us to better understand how climate and sea level are likely to change in the future.

Coccoliths are abundant in sediments across the world’s oceans, yet it is difficult to apply traditional carbon or oxygen isotope methodologies for temperature reconstructions. We show that our coccolith clumped isotope temperature calibration with well-constrained temperatures systematically differs from inorganic carbonate calibrations. We suggest the use of our well-constrained calibration for future coccolith carbonate temperature reconstructions.

Our research discovered significant seasonal temperature variations in the North Atlantic's mid-latitudes during the early Late Pliocene. This highlights the necessity of using multiple methods to get a full picture of past climates, thus avoiding a biased understanding of the climate system. Moreover, our study reveals that the precession signal, which previously dominated surface temperature records, disappeared with the increased influence of the ice sheets in the Northern Hemisphere.

Past climate reconstructions are essential for understanding climate mechanisms and drivers. Our focus is on the South American continent over the past 2000 years. We offer a new reconstruction that particularly utilizes data from speleothems, previously absent from continent-wide reconstructions. We use paleoclimate data assimilation, a reconstruction method that combines information from climate archives and climate simulations.

We reconstruct environmental changes derived from sediments of Schweriner See, a large lake in NE Germany, for the past 3000 years. We infer variations in North Atlantic large-scale atmospheric circulation systems, namely the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO), by combining sedimentological, geochemical, and biological parameters. Our results suggest distinct shifts between positive and negative NAO phases affecting winter temperatures, precipitation, and westerly wind strength at our study site.

We date sedimentary deposits showing that the southeastern Laurentide Ice Sheet was at or near its southernmost extent from ~ 26 000 to 21 000 years ago, when sea levels were at their lowest, with climate records indicating glacial conditions. Slow deglaciation began ~ 22 000 years ago, shown by a rise in modeled local summer temperatures, but significant deglaciation in the region did not begin until ~ 18 000 years ago, when atmospheric CO₂ began to rise, marking the end of the last ice age.