Eemian lake deposits in Grande Pile and Ribains, France, correlate with marine isotope substages (MIS) 5e and 5d as delimited in two pollen-bearing deep-sea cores off Portugal. The Eemian forests in France lasted for approximately 20 millennia, from at least 126,000 to ca. 107,000 yr B.P. Oscillatory climate deteriorations began about 115,000 yr ago. An intense cold spell affected the region approximately 110,000 yr ago.

The last interglacial period has a timing and duration that can be estimated from U-series dating of emergent, coral-bearing deposits on tectonically stable coastlines. High-precision dating from Bermuda, the Bahamas, Hawaii, and Australia suggests that the last interglacial period had a sea level at least as high as present from ∼128,000 to 116,000 yr B.P. Sea level reached a near-present level more quickly after the close of the penultimate glacial period than at the close of the last glacial period and the duration of high sea level is longer than that implied by the deep-sea record.

The muskrat (Ondatra zibethicus) is presumed to have undergone a rapid phyletic size decrease near the end of the Pleistocene. Evolutionary changes in the size of middle to late Wisconsinan (ca. 32,000–12,300 14C yr B.P.) muskrats from the Aucilla River, Jefferson County, Florida, were reconstructed by examining length and width of the lower first molar (m1). Body mass, estimated from m1 length, was relatively stable from 32,000 to 16,000 14C yr B.P. and decreased only slightly by 12,300 14C yr B.P. If the size trend found in the Aucilla River material is characteristic of the southeastern United States, a body size decrease after 12,300 14C yr B.P. is needed to explain the smaller size of modern populations. It was previously thought that the length/width (l/w) ratio of the muskrat m1 was a paleoenvironmental indicator based on its presumed correlation with latitude in modern populations. We examined the length and width of modern muskrats from several geographic regions and found only a very weak trend in the size of the m1 between northern and southern populations; however, highly significant differences were found between regions of similar latitude. Our data indicate that chronoclines in the m1 of the Aucilla muskrat material and other such documented trends among fossil muskrats have paleoenvironmental significance, but it is not yet clear which environmental variables can best be predicted from them.

Records of Holocene vegetation and climate change at low elevations (<2000 m) are rare in the central Rocky Mountain region. We developed a record of Holocene vegetation and climate change from 55 14C-dated woodrat middens at two low-elevation sites (1275 to 1590 m), currently vegetated by Juniperus osteosperma woodlands, in the northern Bighorn Basin. Macrofossil and pollen analyses show that the early Holocene was cooler than today, with warming and drying in the middle Holocene. During the Holocene, boreal (Juniperus communis, J. horizontalis) and montane species (J. scopulorum) were replaced by a Great Basin species (J. osteosperma). J. osteosperma colonized the east side of the Pryor Mountains 4700 14C yr B.P. Downward movement of lower treeline indicates wetter conditions between 4400 and 2700 14C yr B.P. Increased aridity after 2700 14C yr B.P. initiated expansion of J. osteosperma from the east to west side of the Pryor Mountains.

A continuous record of organic carbon δ13C from a buried soil sequence in south-central Texas demonstrates: 1) strong coupling between marine and adjacent continental ecosystems in the late Pleistocene as a result of glacial meltwater entering the Gulf of Mexico and 2) ecosystem decoupling in the Holocene associated with a reduction of meltwater and a shift in global circulation patterns. In the late Pleistocene, reduction in C4 plant productivity correlates with two well-documented glacial meltwater pulses (∼15,000 and 12,000 14C yr B.P.), indicating a cooler-than-present adjacent continental environment. Increased C4 production between 11,000 and 10,000 14C yr B.P. suggests that the Younger Dryas was a warm interval responding to the diversion of glacial meltwater away from the Mississippi River. With waning meltwater flow, C4 productivity generally increased throughout the Holocene, culminating in peak warm intervals at ∼5000 and 2000 14C yr B.P. Shifts in the abundances of C3–C4 plants through the late Quaternary show no correlation to ecophysiological responses to atmospheric CO2 concentration.

The terms Eem and Eemian have been applied to lithostratigraphic, chronostratigraphic, and biostratigraphic aspects of the last interglacial in western Europe. Eemian vegetational successions show strong uniformity at sites from western France across the North European Plain to Poland, suggesting, by comparison with the Holocene, that major pollen zones are broadly synchronous. South of the Alps and Pyrenees, a different vegetational succession is observed with no evidence for a substage of post-temperate cooling.

Oxygen isotope stage 3 (OIS 3) climate and its variations are the focus of the Stage 3 Project. The objective of the OIS 3 modeling effort is twofold: (1) to explore the importance of different boundary conditions on the climate of Europe and (2) to develop climate simulations that best reproduce the wealth of OIS 3 observations. Given the complexity of the topography and coastlines, the modeling effort is based on a “nested” General Circulation Model (GCM) and mesoscale model (RegCM2) with climate simulations for Europe on a 60-km grid spacing. The key conclusions are as follows: (1) The mesoscale model, driven by GCM output, does a reasonable job of reproducing the modern European climate. (2) OIS 3 variations in orbit, CO2, and ice-sheet size are of little significance in explaining the observed climate variability. (3) The model results focus attention on North Atlantic sea-surface temperatures (SST) as a major factor in explaining OIS 3 climates. (4) Experiments for different SST values capture a number of systematic changes in sea-level pressure and precipitation. (5) Climate models simulate substantial European cooling and significant changes in precipitation, but they do not explain large differences between OIS 3 warm and cold episodes.

Analysis of a buried deposit in the Diamond Valley of southern California has revealed well-preserved pollen, wood, and diatom remains. Accelerator mass spectrometry dates of 41,200±2100 and 41,490±1380 14C yr B.P. place this deposit in marine isotope stage 3. Diatoms suggest a shallow lacustrine environment. Pollen data suggest that several plant communities were present near the site, with grassland, scrub, chaparral, forest, and riparian communities represented. Comparison with modern pollen suggests similarities with montane forests in the nearby San Bernardino and San Jacinto ranges, indicating vegetation lowering by at least 900 m elevation and temperatures 4°–5°C cooler than today. An increase in high-elevation conifer pollen documents climatic cooling near the profile top. Early-profile diatoms are typical of warm water with high alkalinity and conductivity, whereas later diatoms suggest a higher flow regime and input of cooler water into the system. We suggest that the sequence is part of the cooling phase of an interstadial Dansgaard–Oeschger cycle. Records of the middle Wisconsin period are rare in southern California, but the Diamond Valley site is similar to records from Tulare Lake in the San Joaquin Valley and the ODP Site 893A record from Santa Barbara Basin. It is probable that the Diamond Valley assemblage is a local expression of a vegetation type widespread in the ranges and basins of southwestern California during the middle Wisconsin.

Suggestions that the duration of the Eemian interglacial was about 11,000 yr, based on annually laminated sediment sequences in Germany, have been challenged in favor of a much longer interval. However, biostratigraphic evidence demonstrates why the Eemian sequences at Grande Pile and Ribains cannot be reliably used for alignment with the marine sequence, as applied by Kukla et al. (2002, this issue) to estimate the duration of this interglacial. The long chronology they propose would imply not just coniferous but, for up to 5000 yr, fully temperate forest in central France coexisting with treeless heath and steppe tundra conditions in northwestern Europe, an unlikely climatic and ecological scenario. The proposal that the Eemian Interglacial in western Europe lasted for 17,000 or even 23,000 yr is rejected. A duration of no more than 13,000 yr is preferred, at least for sites north of the Alps and Pyrenees. The duration of temperate conditions in the Mediterranean region is less certain.

Continuous lacustrine deposits of the Funza-II core from the Bogotá basin, Colombia (5°N74°W) record late Pleistocene climatic variations, providing an opportunity to assess the influence of glacial–interglacial climate changes on alpine ecosystems in equatorial South America. Biogeochemical response of this tropical alpine system to climate change was inferred from changes in elemental concentrations and ratios and isotopic signatures in the upper 120 m of the lacustrine Funza core.

Values of δ13Corg exhibit eight abrupt, positive shifts that are thought to reflect rapid expansions of C4 grasses in the tropical Andes and algal blooms. One of these excursions, interpreted to correspond to C4 vegetation expansion, occurred in sediments accumulated during the last glaciation (∼30,000–50,000 yr B.P.) and implies a downslope shift of the upper Andean treeline, regardless of prevailing temperatures.

Sedimentary carbon/sulfur ratios are low and indicate significant sequestering of sulfur. Monosulfides are the dominant constituent of sedimentary sulfur during relatively humid intervals, when increased supply of iron caused by enhanced weathering favored the formation of monosulfide minerals under strongly reducing conditions. In contrast, organosulfur compounds dominate the sedimentary sulfur-species in relatively drier intervals when mildly reducing conditions and limited iron input promoted the diagenetic incorporation of sulfur in organic matter. Dry events inferred from the sulfur record typically correlate with glacial maxima, whereas glacial terminations are usually associated with wet periods.

So-called annual banding has been identified in a number of speleothems in which the number of bands approximates the time interval between successive U-series dates. The apparent annual resolution of speleothem records, however, remains largely untested. Here we statistically compare variations in band thickness from a late Holocene stalagmite in Carlsbad Cavern, Southern New Mexico, USA, with three independent tree-ring chronologies form the same region. We found no correspondence. Although there may be various explanations for the discordance, this limited exercise suggests that banded stalagmites should be held to the same rigorous standards in chronology building and climatic inference as annually resolved tree rings, corals, and ice cores.

Hundreds of small lakes became filled with Eemian deposits following the retreat of Saalian ice in northwestern Germany. Weakly expressed climate oscillations have been inferred from some local pollen records of Late Saalian sediments. Sea level stood 7 m below the current northwest German sea-level datum (NN) during the interglacial climate optimum and decreased afterward. A uniform vegetational succession of the Eemian mixed forests, correlated with marine isotope stage (MIS) 5e, terminated with the demise of boreal woodlands marked by a steep increase in nonarboreal pollen. This is the onset of the early Weichselian Herning Stade, correlated with MIS 5d. No sharp climate oscillations during the Eemian have been documented. In the ending phase of the interglaciation, the climate deteriorated gradually. Dominant heath and grass tundras point to a substantial decline of summer temperature during the Herning Stade. Sea level then stood at −40 m NN. Sedimentological considerations, supported by counts of partly varved deposits, indicate that the Eemian lasted about 10,000–11,000 yr and the Herning for several millennia.

Millennial to submillennial marine oscillations that are linked with the North Atlantic's Heinrich events and Dansgaard–Oeschger cycles have been reported recently from the Alboran Sea, revealing a close ocean-atmosphere coupling in the Mediterranean region. We present a high-resolution record of lithogenic fraction variability along IMAGES Core MD 95-2043 from the Alboran Sea that we use to infer fluctuations of fluvial and eolian inputs to the core site during periods of rapid climate change, between 28,000 and 48,000 cal yr B.P. Comparison with geochemical and pollen records from the same core enables end-member compositions to be determined and to document fluctuations of fluvial and eolian inputs on millennial and faster timescales. Our data document increases in northward Saharan dust transports during periods of strengthened atmospheric circulation in high northern latitudes. From this we derive two atmospheric scenarios which are linked with the intensity of meridional atmospheric pressure gradients in the North Atlantic region.

A new astronomical calibration method for long pollen records from southern Europe is applied to the last interglacial interval of the Ioannina sequence, northwestern Greece. This shows that the last interglacial in this region, as defined by the presence of forest communities, lasted ca. 15,500 yr, from 127,300 to 111,800 yr B.P. Interglacial conditions developed within marine isotope substage (MIS) 5e and persisted into MIS 5d, lagging changes in global ice volume.

One of the most intriguing episodes in the Quaternary evolution of the Grand Canyon of the Colorado River, Arizona, was the development of vast lakes that are thought to have backed up behind lava erupted into the gorge. Stratigraphic evidence for these deep lava-dammed lakes is expectedly sparse. Possible lacustrine deposits at six areas in the eastern canyon yielded no compelling evidence for sediment deposited in a deep lake. At two of the sites the sediment was associated with late Quaternary spring-fed pools and marshes. Water-lain silt and sand at lower Havasu Creek was deposited ∼3000 cal yr ago. The deposit contains an ostracode assemblage similar to that living in the modern travertine-dammed pools adjacent to the outcrop. The second deposit, at Lees Ferry, formed in a spring-fed marsh ∼43,000 cal yr ago, as determined by 14C and amino acid geochronology. It contains abundant ostracode and mollusk fossils, the richest assemblages reported from the Grand Canyon to date. Our interpretation of these sediments as spring-fed deposits, and their relative youth, provides an alternative to the conventional view that deposits like these were formed in deep lava-dammed lakes that filled the Grand Canyon.

Previous studies report that remains of prairie taxa are common in western Missouri archaeological sites. There is no reported evidence of prairie taxa, such as Bos bison, from sites within the northern Ozark Highlands of Missouri. New data indicate that prairie taxa inhabited the area during the warm and dry mid-Holocene (8500–5000 14C yr B.P.). Evidence suggests prairie taxa were farther east and south than previously documented in central Missouri and underscores the importance of biogeographic data in studies of prehistoric environments.

Recent studies on relict eolian dunes in the Rio Negro basin, northern Amazon, Brazil (00°35′N, 63°14′W), indicate a drier climate regime during the Late Pleistocene–Holocene transition that is different from the present humid climate. The eolian sands form long chains of linear dunes bordering the Rio Negro River and some tributaries. Here, we present thermoluminescence (TL) ages spanning the period 32,000–8000 yr B.P. The final dune stabilization took place after 8,000 yr B.P. and now the bases of the dunes are fixed by vegetation. Clustering of the TL dates suggests that the dry climate in the Amazon Basin occurred in distinct episodes and argues against current opinions that drastic ecological changes did not affect in the Amazon during the last global glaciation.

Paleoproductivity records from Lake Baikal indicate that the last interglaciation in southeastern Siberia lasted ca. 12,000 yr from 127,000 to 115,000 yr B.P., was punctuated by a climatic oscillation about 120,000 yr ago, and ended abruptly with a rapid onset of regional glaciation during marine isotope substage (MIS) 5d. The Siberian equivalent of the MIS 5e–5d transition appears to lead the post-Eemian cold pulses in Europe and in the central North Atlantic by 5000 to 8000 yr. The Baikal record also registers a pronounced cold event during early MIS 5c, which correlates with the Montaigu event in pollen records from France. In Siberia, the climatic deterioration during the MIS 5d was a full-scale glacial pulse unlike the short, moderate cooling during the Montaigu event.

Loess on the high mountains of northwestern China is largely controlled by the topographic features, distributed mainly on the northern slopes of the Tianshan and Kunlun Mountains as well as in the Ili Valley (between the northern and central Tianshan ranges). Loess distributed in different regions has different ages, with the oldest (early Pleistocene) loess occurring in the Ili Valley. Geochemical, mineralogical and granulometric analyses demonstrate that the loess in the three different regions has different provenance. The loess on the northern Tianshan and Kunlun Mountains is mainly derived from the Junggar and Taklimakan Deserts, respectively, whereas the loess in the Ili Valley is derived mainly from the Sary–Ishikotrau Desert located in the Republic of Kazakhstan. However, these deserts serve mostly as holding areas for the silts rather than original source regions. The production of the silt-sized particles is mainly associated with glacial abrasion and tectonic-induced rock denudation. Thus, the loess in the studied regions can be described as “mountainous” loess rather than simply “glacial” loess or “desert” loess. It is unlikely that the mechanisms of loess formation are the same in different regions, given their dependence on specific geomorphological conditions and associated processes.