Climatic and environmental changes, as well as human action, have been cited as potential causes for the extinction of megafauna in South America at the end of the Pleistocene. Among megamammals lineages with Holarctic origin, only horses and proboscideans went extinct in South America during this period. This study aims to understand how the spatial extent of habitats suitable for Equus neogeus and Notiomastodon platensis changed between the last glacial maximum (LGM) and the middle Holocene in order to determine the impact that climatic and environmental changes had on these taxa. We used species distribution modeling to estimate their potential extent on the continent and found that both species occupied arid and semiarid open lands during the LGM, mainly in the Pampean region of Argentina, southern and northeastern Brazil, and parts of the Andes. However, when climate conditions changed from dry and cold during the LGM to humid and warm during the middle Holocene, the areas suitable for these taxa were reduced dramatically. These results support the hypothesis that climatic changes were a driving cause of extinction of these megamammals in South America, although we cannot rule out the impact of human actions or other potential causes for their extinction.

In central Western Europe, several studies have shown that colder Holocene periods, such as the Little Ice Age, also correspond to wet periods. However, in mountain areas which are highly sensitive to erosion processes and where precipitation events can be localized, past evolution of hydrological activity might be more complicated. To assess these past hydrological changes, a paleolimnological approach was applied on a 13.4-m-long sediment core taken in alpine Lake Anterne (2063 m asl) and representing the last 3.5 ka. Lake sedimentation is mainly composed of flood deposits triggered by precipitation events. Sedimentological and geochemical analyses show that floods were more frequent during cold periods while high-intensity flood events occurred preferentially during warmer periods. In mild temperature conditions, both flood patterns are present. This underlines the complex relationship between flood hazards and climatic change in mountain areas. During the warmer and/or dryer times of the end of Iron Age and the Roman Period, both the frequency and intensity of floods increased. This is interpreted as an effect of human-induced clearing for grazing activities and reveals that anthropogenic interferences must be taken into account when reconstructing climatic signals from natural archives.

Relations between climate change and landscape evolution during the last two millennia in southeastern coastal Tunisia have been documented using high-resolution reconstruction of flood history and fire activity in the Sebkha Mhabeul core. The age model, based on tephrochronology, indicates that the core extends from Roman to modern times and encompasses the well-defined climatic periods of the last two millennia. This record provides a first palaeoecological/palaeoclimatic high resolution reconstruction in North Africa using a cross-disciplinary approach with both physical (grey-scale intensity, quartz particles) and biological (charcoal and pollen) indicators. The flood history shows four wet/dry cycles (ca. AD 550–950, 950–1300, 1300–1570 and 1570–1870) of different duration. Major hydrological instabilities are concentrated during the Medieval Climate Anomalies and the early Little Ice Age, between AD 1000 and 1550. Direct correlation between climate and fire cannot be established suggesting that the fire history of the Sebkha environment is mainly influenced by human activity. This study demonstrates the great value of sebkhas as palaeoenvironmental archives.

In December 2011 a specimen of the blue tang surgeonfish Acanthurus coeruleus was observed in the waters of Cyprus. As this species typically lives in the tropical western Atlantic Ocean, its presence in the Mediterranean Sea is very likely to be related to human activities. Speculated ways of introduction in the Mediterranean Sea are discussed.