The recent extension of (1) the residual Δ14C curve back to 11,400 cal yr B.P. and (2) the lake-level reconstruction in the Jura back to ca. 13,500 cal yr B.P. offers the opportunity of testing by proxy data the relationships between climate, atmospheric 14C, the sun, and the ocean recently suggested from the atmospheric 14C record. The climatic significance of the Jura record is supported by correlations with climatic oscillations reconstructed in the Alps from glaciers and timberline movements. Correspondence between the 14C and paleoclimatic record from the Jura suggests a working hypothesis: two intervals within the Holocene can be distinguished in the middle latitudes of western and central Europe. An early Holocene period shows abrupt climatic oscillations linked to ocean forcing. Major colder climate phases developed between ca. 9000 and 8800, and between ca. 8000 and 7000 cal yr B.C. that coincide with higher Δ14C values. After 6000 cal yr B.C., a second period is characterized by smoother multicentury climatic oscillations linked to solar forcing.

Previous reconstructions of the ice cover of the Svalbard-Barents Sea region during the late Weichselian have ranged from small ice masses on Svalbard to complete inundation of the Barents Shelf region by an ice sheet several kilometers thick. We have used a time-dependent finite-difference numerical model to undertake a new glaciological reconstruction for the Svalbard-Barents Sea Ice Sheet over the last 30,000 yr. The numerical model requires environmental forcing functions in the form of air temperature and precipitation and their behavior with respect to altitude, together with sea-level change and an iceberg calving relation. Ice buildup on Svalbard is calculated to have begun 28,000 yr ago, and maximum dimensions were reached by 20,000 yr ago, covering Svalbard and the northwestern Barents Sea with a center of mass (1.3 km thick) around eastern Svalbard. Decay was complete by about 10,000 yr ago. The margin of the modeled ice sheet at its maximum is in good agreement with observed sea-floor morphological features, but there are discrepancies in timing between the modeled ice sheet decay and (i) a dated meltwater spike in Fram Strait and (ii) the observed rebound curves for Svalbard. An inverse approach was used to predict ice sheet decay, and it was found that increasing the rate of iceberg calving within the model produces a deglaciation some 2000 yr earlier, which is compatible with these two independent datasets. The reconstruction is also compatible with geological evidence on the isostatic response of Bjørnøya, close to the southern limit of the ice sheet, and seismically observed deposits, interpreted to be ice. proximal facies, located in the northwestern Barents Sea. Our time-dependent model reconstructions of the Svalbard-Barents Sea Ice Sheet indicate ice cover over only the northwestern Barents Sea during the late Weichselian, but this does not preclude the presence of ice derived from Fennoscandia and the Kara Sea region elsewhere in the Barents Sea.

There is a clear linear relationship between mean annual (or seasonal) air temperature at the Earth's surface and the mean oxygen isotopic composition of precipitation in polar regions. Whereas this relationship is well preserved in polar ice caps, it may not be in permafrost because freshly deposited snow in permafrost areas is subjected to great deflation and drifting by wind. Moreover, melting and freezing within the snow cover and the active layer can lead to isotopic fractionation. The δ18O of recent ground ice also depends on its geomorphic context and on the lithology (content of organic matter) of ice-containing sediments. Nevertheless, mean cold-season air temperature near the ground surface and δ18O in recent ground ice are highly correlated. Therefore, the δ18O of ground ice (ice cement and segregated ice) in permafrost areas can be used for paleoclimatic reconstructions.

A 3029-m-long deep ice core extending nearly to bedrock has been drilled at the very top of the Greenland ice sheet (Summit) by the Greenland Ice-core Project (GRIP), an international European joint effort organized by the European Science Foundation. The ice core reaches back to 250,000 yr B.P. according to dating based partly on stratigraphic methods and partly on ice-flow modeling. A continuous and detailed stable isotope (δ18O) profile along the entire core depicts dramatic temperature changes in Greenland through the last two glacial cycles, including abrupt climatic shifts during the Eem/Sangamon Interglaciation, which is elsewhere recorded as a warm and stable period. The stratigraphic continuity of the Eemian layers has therefore been scrutinized. New ice core studies, comprising cloudy band observations, deconvolution, and frequency analyses, lead to the conclusion that the climate instability suggested during the Eem Interglaciation in Greenland is likely to be real, though no conclusive evidence is available. Whereas latitudinal displacements of the North Atlantic Ocean current are considered the immediate cause of the glacial climate instability, longitudinal displacements may be the immediate cause of the Eemian instability. If so, the Eemian climate changes will be much subdued outside the Arctic region and will probably only be recognizable in sedimentary sequences of high sensitivity and temporal resolution.

Since the turn of the century, a Pliocene-Pleistocene connection between the Death Valley-Owens River pluvial system and the Colorado River drainage basin has been frequently postulated. The two most commonly proposed routes involve (1) a southward overflow from the Death Valley Lake system or (2) southward migration of the Mojave River between its present course and a more southerly route. Under the present topographic regime, a Death Valley Lake capable of overflowing the bedrock saddle at Ludlow, California and discharging southward into the Bristol, Cadiz, and Danby Lake basins (and eventually the Colorado River) would be over 12,000 km2 in size. Few surface and subsurface indicators exist to support either a fluvial or lacustrine connection. Evidence from deep cores and boreholes drilled in Soda, Bristol, Cadiz, and Danby dry lake basins indicate that a hydrologic connection has not occurred during the past 4 myr. No well-documented paleoshoreline features have been located at elevations corresponding to the above hydrologic systems in Death Valley, Silver-Soda, Bristol, or Danby Lake basins. In the Cadiz, Silurian, and Broadwell basins these features have not been found at all. Therefore, we conclude that a hydrologic connection between the Death Valley-Owens River system and the Colorado River has not occurred along either of these routes since the middle Pliocene.

The climatic evolution during the Eemian and the Holocene in western Europe is compared with the sea-surface conditions in the Norwegian Sea and with the oxygen-isotope-derived paleotemperature signal in the GRIP and Renland ice cores from Greenland. The records show a warm phase (ca. 3000 yr long) early in the Eemian (substage 5e). This suggests that the Greenland ice sheet, in general, recorded the climate in the region during this time. Rapid fluctuations during late stage 6 and late substage 5e in the GRIP ice core apparently are not recorded in the climatic proxies from western Europe and the Norwegian Sea. This may be due to low resolution in the terrestrial and marine records and/or long response time of the biotic changes. The early Holocene climatic optimum recorded in the terrestrial and marine records in the Norwegian Sea-NW European region is not found in the Summit (GRIP and GISP2) ice cores. However, this warm phase is recorded in the Renland ice core. Due to the proximity of Renland to the Norwegian Sea, this area is probably more influenced by changes in polar front positions which may partly explain this discrepancy. A reduction in the elevation at Summit during the Holocene may, however, be just as important. The high-amplitude shifts during substage 5e in the GRIP core could be due to Atlantic water oscillating closer to, and also reaching, the coast of East Greenland. During the Holocene, Atlantic water was generally located farther east in the Norwegian Sea than during the Eemian.

The Chinese loess-paleosol sequence constitutes an important record of variations in Asian monsoon climate over the past 2.4 myr. Magnetic susceptibility of loess and paleosols has been used as a proxy for summer monsoon intensity, while median grain size has been regarded as a measure of the strength of winter monsoon winds that were responsible for most of the dust transport. However, median grain size is only an approximate index of winter monsoon strength because both paleosols and loess have been modified, to various degrees, by weathering processes that have produced pedogenic clay. The quartz component of loess and paleosols is largely unaffected by weathering processes and therefore constitutes a more reliable proxy index of monsoon wind strength. Median grain size (Qmd) and maximum grain size (Qmax) values of monomineralic quartz isolated from the loess-paleosol section at Luochuan in the central Loess Plateau are characterized by two main intervals during the last ca. 130,000 yr when these parameters were significantly greater than 9 and 85 μm, respectively, and three main intervals when they were lower. The data imply that the winter monsoon weakened during the intervals with low Qmd and Qmax values, which coincide with marine oxygen isotope stages 5, 3, and 1, and was strongest ca. 67,000 and 20,000 yr ago during isotope stages 4 and 2. However, both quartz grainsize records display second-order high-frequency, high-amplitude variations, which are lacking in the magnetic susceptibility record, that imply rapid and significant changes in atmospheric conditions that affect dust transport and deposition.

δ18O measurements of benthic ostracodes are used to reconstruct the δ18O history of Lake Huron and Georgian Bay water between 10,600 and 7600 14C yr B.P. This δ18O record was calibrated using a comparison of the δ18O values of modern ostracodes and Lake Huron water, where a fractionation of 1.0358 was measured between the oxygen isotope ratios of the most isotopically positive ostracode Candona subtriangulata and lake water. The most positive shell δ18O value was used because it is precipitated in the cold (0° to 2°C) water common to both deep and shallow environments. The δ18O of Lake Huron water reflects a large glacial meltwater component for much of its history before 7600 14C yr B.P. Times of low lake level correlate with the highest ratio of glacial meltwater to local precipitation in the basin (most negative δ18O values). Georgian Bay water was more negative in δ18O than Lake Huron water of the same age; this reflects a higher proportion of glacial meltwater in Georgian Bay and its separation from Lake Huron during times of low lake level.

Two speleothems from a coastal lowland and an alpine cave site in northern Norway grew in isotopic equilibrium during Termination II and marine isotope stage 5 (150,000-80,000 yr B.P.), as dated by the U-series technique. The stable isotope record (δ18O, δ13C) displays a time resolution down to ∼20 yr. The δ18Oc signal in the two speleothems appears to be mainly dominated by the meteoric signal; i.e., there is a positive relationship between δ18Oc and temperature [∂(δ18Oc/∂T > 0]. The FM-2 couplet, a Younger Dryas type two-step structure in Termination II at 132,000 ± 5000 and 129,000 ± 5000 yr is prominent in the speleothem record. The record correlates well with details and gross features of the GRIP ice core and confirms the time scale and the unstable climate proposed for substage 5e. The isotopic response in Termination II is delayed relative to the Devil's Hole record and is in accord with the SPECMAP chronology, but cooling at the end of substage 5e seems to be synchronous between Devil's Hole and the Norwegian flowstones.

The floodplain along a 75-km segment of the Brazos River, traversing the Gulf Coastal Plain of Texas, has a complex late Quaternary history. From 18,000 to 8500 yr B.P., the Brazos River was a competent meandering stream that migrated from one side of the floodplain to the other, creating a thick layer of coarse-grained lateral accretion deposits. After 8500 yr B.P., the hydrologic regime of the Brazos River changed. The river became an underfit meandering stream that repeatedly became confined within narrow and unstable meander belts that would occasionally avulse. Avulsion occurred four times; first at 8100 yr B.P., then at 2500 yr B.P., again around 500 yr B.P., and finally around 300 yr B.P. The depositional regime on the floodplain also changed after 8500 yr B.P., with floodplain construction dominated by vertical accretion. Most vertical accretion occurred from 8100 to 4200 yr B.P. and from 2500 to 1250 yr B.P. Two major and three minor periods of soil formation are documented in the floodplain sequence. The two most developed soils formed from 4200 to 2500 yr B.P. and from around 1250 to 500 yr B.P. These changes on the floodplain appear to be the result not of a single factor, but of the complex interplay among changes in climate, sediment yield, and intrinsic floodplain variables over time.

A 38-m well section near Lanzhou at the semiarid western margin of the Loess Plateau, China, contained a continuous, high-resolution loess-paleosol sequence spanning the last 130,000 yr. Depth functions of micromorphological features, magnetic susceptibility, calcium carbonate, organic carbon, and median grain size provide the basis for pedosedimentary and associated paleoenvironmental reconstructions of three paleosol complexes (S1, Sm, and S0). Each pedosedimentary stage reflects the interaction of changing intensities of controlling monsoonal forces. Three periods of reduced dust inputs and enhanced pedogenic activity, notably bioturbation and weak leaching, can be identified from within the S1 pedocomplex. These "soil-forming intervals" were separated by phases of varying land surface instability characterized by arid dust deposition, semiarid accretionary pedogenesis, water reworking, and crust formation, or even freeze-thaw modification. The Sm pedocomplex represents an interval of relatively rapid dust accumulation with only minimal syndepositional modification and minor pedogenic alteration at ephemeral land surfaces. The S0 pedocomplex is clearly more pedogenically developed, although erosion, reworking, and mixing by water have partly homogenized the property depth functions.

Alluvial, fluvial, and organic deposits of the last interglaciation are exposed along numerous river terraces in northeast Siberia. Although chronological control is often poor, the paleobotanical data suggest range extensions of up to 1000 km for the primary tree species. These data also indicate that boreal communities of the last interglaciation were similar to modern ones in composition, but their distributions were displaced significantly to the north-northwest. Inferences about climate of this period suggest that mean July temperatures were warmer by 4 to 8°C, and seasonal precipitation was slightly greater. Mean January temperatures may have been severely cooler than today (up to 12°C) along the Arctic coast, but similar or slightly warmer than present in other areas. The direction and magnitude of change in July temperatures agree with Atmospheric General Circulation Models, but the 126,000-year-B.P. model results also suggest trends opposite to the paleobotanical data, with simulated cooler winter temperatures and drier conditions than present during the climatic optimum.

High-resolution δ18O and δ13C analyses of a stalagmite from Lobatse II Cave reveal late Pleistocene environmental changes in Botswana. Large shifts in δ18O and δ13C are observed between two main periods of deposition. The first period, between 51,000 and 43,000 yr B.P., was warm and humid and may have been associated with some C3 vegetation. The second period, between 27,000 and 21,000 yr B.P., had temperatures approximately 2°C lower, and vegetation dominated by drought-adapted C4 plants. The intervening period, between 43,000 and 27,000 yr B.P., bounded by two major hiatuses in stalagmite growth, produced discontinuous speleothem formation, probably under dry conditions. New 230 Th/234U mass spectrometry age determinations for the stalagmite generally agree with previously measured 230 Th/234U ages.

The Kalodiki fen is a 2-km2 mire in a small basin within a tectonic depression in Epirus, western Greece. Since the last glaciation the basin has been occupied by a freshwater lake and has accumulated as much as 9 m of peat, which continues to form today. A 10-cm-thick, light-brown to olive fine sandy layer appears in cores at depths ranging from 2.9 to 5.7 m. The sand fraction of this layer consists mostly of pumice fragments and brown and colorless glass shards with similar major-element compositions, and it also contains crystal fragments of feldspars (mainly sanidine), ferromagnesian minerals, and probably sphene and apatite. The colorless glass has an index of refraction 1.519 ± 0.002. A sample of the overlying peat layer gave a minimum radiocarbon age of about 31,800 ± 1200 yr B.P. for the deposition of the tephra. The likely age of the tephra, its index of refraction, and its mineralogical and chemical characteristics display strong similarities to tephra from the Campanian province of Italy. Mineralogically similar tephra layers have also been reported from a peat deposit at Philippi, in northeastern Greece.

A lacustrine sediment record from the Kangerlussuaq region, West Greenland, has resulted in a pollen, macrofossil, and sediment stratigraphy that encompasses the last 5000 14C yr. Deglaciation of the area and subsequent development of a nearby floodplain occurred before 5000 yr B.P. Since that time eolian sand and silt deposition appear to have been continuous, with a significant increase ca. 1000 14C yr B.P. Pollen analysis shows little change in the character of the vegetation throughout the record. Fluctuations in herb pollen taxa indicate changes in the extent and development of eolian sand sheets. The oldest pollen zone records relatively little pollen accumulation and low taxa diversity. This is followed by a zone of high pollen accumulation, presumably a phase of highest vegetation density, from 4400 to 3400 14C yr B.P. Thereafter, declining pollen accumulation rates reveal a gradual environmental deterioration. Macrofossil analyses record significant limnological changes, with an early eutrophic phase followed by a masotrophic phase and a reversal to more eutrophic conditions in the final phase. The preserved record illustrates the interactions of deglaciation, eolian activity, regional vegetation, and limnological change.

The last interglacial high sea-level stand, the Pelukian transgression of isotope substage 5e, is recorded along the western and northern coasts of Alaska by discontinuous but clearly traceable marine terraces and coastal landforms up to about 10 m altitude. The stratigraphy indicates that sea level reached this altitude only once during the last interglacial cycle. From the type area at Nome, to St. Lawrence Island in the Bering Sea, to the eastern limit of the Beaufort Sea, Pelukian deposits contain extralimital faunas indicating that coastal waters were warmer than present. Amino acid ratios in molluscs from these deposits decrease to the north toward Barrow, consistent with the modern regional temperature gradient. Fossil assemblages at Nome and St. Lawrence Island suggest that the winter sea-ice limit was north of Bering Strait, at least 800 km north of its present position, and the Bering Sea was perennially ice-free. Microfauna in Pelukian sediments recovered from boreholes indicate that Atlantic water may have been present on the shallow Beaufort Shelf, suggesting that the Arctic Ocean was not stratified and the Arctic sea-ice cover was not perennial for some period. In coastal regions of western Alaska, spruce woodlands extended westward beyond their modern range and in northern Alaska, on the Arctic Coastal Plain, spruce groves may have entered the upper Colville River basin. The Flaxman Member of the Gubik Formation on the Alaskan Arctic Coastal Plain was deposited during marine isotope substage 5a and records the breakup of an intra-stage 5 ice sheet over northwestern Keewatin.

River mouths on the steep, high-relief coast of the French Riviera exhibit thick sequences of Holocene marine, estuarine, deltaic, and river channel-floodplain sediments that overlie basal fluvial Pleistocene gravel. Gravel is uncommon in most of the early to middle Holocene aggradational-progradational marine, estuarine, deltaic sediments, despite an ample supply from rock units in the steep adjoining uplands. River-mouth gravel is common only in late Holocene river channels and in barrier beaches perched on finer-grained nearshore sediments. Neither downslope grain-size fining on alluvial fans nor sediment stacking patterns during sea-level (base-level) rise readily account for the lack of early to middle Holocene gravel in the river-mouth sediment wedges. Holocene sea-level rise led to the storage of fine-grained sediments in shallow marine, estuarine, and deltaic environments in the present coastal zone. We infer that humid temperate conditions, a dense forest cover, landscape stabilization, and a regular quiescent river flow regime associated with the Atlantic climatic optimum limited gravel supply in the adjoining catchments and gravel entrainment downstream during the early Holocene. Sea-level stabilization in the middle and late Holocene coincided with a marked change in bioclimatic conditions toward the present Mediterranean-type regime, which is characterized by a less dense forest cover, soil erosion, and episodic catastrophic floods. The late Holocene was thus a time of downstream bedload channel aggradation, fine-grained floodplain and paludal sedimentation, and seaward flushing of clasts leading to the formation and consolidation of the gravel barrier beaches that bound the rivermouths and embayments.

The last interglaciation (substage 5e) provides an opportunity to examine the effects of extreme orbital changes on regional climates. We have made two atmospheric general circulation model experiments: P+T+ approximated the northern hemisphere seasonality maximum near the beginning of 5e; P-T- approximated the minimum near the end of 5e. Simulated regional climate changes have been translated into biome changes using a physiologically based model of global vegetation types. Major climatic and vegetational changes were simulated for the northern hemisphere extratropics, due to radiational effects that were both amplified and modified by atmospheric circulation changes and sea-ice feedback. P+T+ showed mid-continental summers up to 8°C warmer than present. Mid-latitude winters were 2-4°C cooler than present but in the Arctic, summer warmth reduced sea-ice extent and thickness, producing winters 2-8°C warmer than present. The tundra and taiga biomes were displaced poleward, while warm-summer steppes expanded in the mid latitudes due to drought. P-T- showed summers up to 5°C cooler than present, especially in mid latitudes. Sea ice and snowpack were thicker and lasted longer; polar desert, tundra, and taiga biomes were displaced equatorward, while cool-summer steppes and semideserts expanded due to the cooling. A slight winter warming in mid latitudes, however, caused warm-temperate evergreen forests and scrub to expand poleward. Such qualitative contrasts in the direction of climate and vegetation change during 5e should be identifiable in the paleorecord.

A sediment and pollen record from Cheyenne Bottoms, a large (166 km2) enclosed basin in central Kansas, provides evidence for local and regional vegetation and climate change during the late Quaternary (ca. 30,000 yr.). Although radiocarbon dating of the carbonate-rich lacustrine sediments remains problematic, a basic chronological framework for the section is established. Two major litho- and biostratigraphic units, a Farmdalian zone (ca. 30,000 to 24,000 yr B.P.) and a Holocene zone (ca. 11,000 yr B.P. to present), are separated by a major unconformity spanning the Woodfordian (ca. 24,000 to 11,000 yr B.P.). Pollen and sedimentary data indicate a period of basin-wide drying preceding this unconformity. The sustained absence of sediment accumulation within this playa-like basin suggests that early Woodfordian conditions were increasingly arid with strengthened surface winds. Before this, persistent shallow water marshland dominated the local basin-bottom vegetation. Regional upland vegetation was an open grassland-sage steppe throughout the Farmdalian with limited populations of spruce, juniper, aspen, birch, and boxelder in riparian settings and escarpments. Throughout the Holocene, water levels within the basin fluctuated. Changes in wetland vegetation resulting from water level fluctuation have increased during the last 3,000 yr indicating that periodic episodes of wetland loss and rebound are not unique to postsettlement conditions but are an ongoing phenomenon at Cheyenne Bottoms.