Using sediment samples from Cyprus, we investigated climate and ocean changes during the Miocene (~23–5 million years ago). Our new record reveals the effects of global climate changes, such as a warming event linked to high CO₂ levels. Later, tectonic events controlled eastern Mediterranean conditions by limiting connectivity with the open ocean. With the first record of its kind for this region, we show how climate and geological processes both affect oceans.

We generated high resolution geochemical records from well-preserved fossil corals of the penultimate glacial (~150 000 years ago) and last glacial (~30 000 years ago) periods drilled at Tahiti in the central tropical South Pacific. The fossil records revealed that the glacial mean seawater temperature was 3–4 °C lower and had greater seasonality than present. Our coral-based reconstructions document oceanographic and hydroclimatological changes in glacial periods extremely different from today.

We investigated sediments from the tropical Indian Ocean to study water column structure and carbon cycling during the mid-Piacenzian Warm Period, about 3 million years ago, when atmospheric carbon dioxide levels were similar to today. Our findings reveal persistent upper ocean stratification and niche separation among plankton groups, which limited nutrient mixing and carbon export to the deep ocean. These results highlight how ocean layering can influence climate feedback in a warmer world.

Using model simulations and reconstructions over the last millennium, we identify distinct North Atlantic Oscillation-related winter climate responses following tropical versus extratropical eruptions, with improved model-data agreement in simulations that use the latest volcanic forcing. Our paleoclimate data–model comparison provides new evidence of volcanic climate impacts, which are strongly dependent on the choice of forcing dataset, model configuration, and eruption event selection.

We analyzed a high-resolution marine sediment record from the Laptev Sea to reconstruct deglacial permafrost thaw events during the last 16 kyr. Using biomarkers and radiocarbon dating, we found that peaks in pre-aged terrigenous material coincided with rapid sea-level rise, indicating coastal erosion as the main mobilization mechanism. This research provides insights into past permafrost carbon release, informing predictions of future climate-permafrost feedback in a warming world.

The breakdown of volcanic rocks by water helps balance the climate of the Earth by sequestering atmospheric CO₂. The rate of CO₂ sequestration is referred to as "weatherability". Our modelling study finds that continental position strongly impacts CO₂ concentrations, that runoff strongly controls weatherability, that changes in weatherability may explain long-term trends in atmospheric CO₂ concentrations, and that even relatively localised changes in weatherability may have global impacts.