Tufas are freshwater carbonate rocks that form in continental environments through a combination of physical, chemical, and biological processes. This study investigates the role of microorganisms in the precipitation of Quaternary tufa deposits in the Serra da Bodoquena Formation, in the Bonito region. Two sites along the Mimoso River, named Taíka and Mimosa, characterized by the pool–barrage–cascade depositional subenvironment, were selected for this study. Four distinct facies were identified: stromatolitic boundstones, phytoherm boundstones of algae, phytoherm boundstones of bryophytes, and phytoclastic rudstones. These facies were observed in diverse hydrological settings, including fast-flowing waters, such as waterfalls and cascades, as well as slow-flowing areas, such as pools and dams. The δ18O depletion indicated a meteoric origin for the fluid involved in carbonate precipitation. The low δ13C values were attributed to photosynthetic processes and the contribution of light carbon-enriched groundwater. The presence of Oocardium stratum and calcified organic mucilage from extracellular polymeric substance (EPS) corroborates the significant role of microorganisms in tufa formation, particularly in stromatolitic boundstones and phytoherm boundstones of algae. Rapid CO2 degassing significantly contributes to mineralization in fast-flowing waters. Micro-CT results offer detailed insights into the relationship between mechanical processes and biological influences in shaping porosity characteristics. The findings of this study significantly enhance our understanding of the role of microorganisms in tufa formation, highlighting the complex interplay between biotic and abiotic processes in the development of different tufa facies. Moreover, the insights gained from this study provide valuable implications for interpreting tufa deposits worldwide.

In sediments, clay minerals are mainly detrital. Formed by continental weathering, they are carried by surface transport predominantly by rivers, glaciers and, to a lesser extent, winds to the adjacent sedimentary basins and then are redistributed by oceanic currents. In a sedimentary core, the variability in the clay mineral assemblages reflects either variable physical and chemical weathering conditions in the watershed, typically with a significant link to climatic conditions, or changes in the mineral source, the latter being associated with various transport agents. When different sources are involved, a combination of mineralogical and geochemical proxies allows us to trace the detrital provenance, but they also indirectly provide valuable information on transport pathways and palaeocurrents. This manuscript reviews several examples from the literature and ongoing research on clay mineral variability in marine or lacustrine sedimentary records and interprets them in terms of: (1) climate control at different timescales, from the Neogene to the Quaternary; and (2) transport paths. Examples are selected to review the various clay-derived proxies in existence.

The Younger Toba Tuff (YTT) eruption is regarded as one of the largest of its time and possibly responsible for changing past climate and vegetation from C3 to C4 in the Indian subcontinent. A paleosol constituting a Toba pre-tephra horizon at the Jwalapuram locality, exhibits the preservation of biogenic structures identified as Vondrichnus planoglobus and Vondrichnus obovatus. This study investigated their paleoecological and paleoenvironmental significance. These structures are hard and compact, rounded to sub-rounded, spherical to sub-spherical bodies with empty chambers, surrounded by carbonate layers, and preserved in close proximity to termite pipes and nests and rhizolith structures. Their occurrence in the Jwalapuram area is significant, as the locality has been well documented as suitable for reconstruction of past climate and vegetation in light of the impact of the YTT eruption. Based on the present findings, we assume that the investigated locality would likely have an insect population and bush to scrub vegetation, indicating a dry environment immediately before the YTT eruption.

Caliche in various forms, namely powdery, nodule, tube, fracture-infill, laminar crust, hard laminated crust (hardpan), and pisolitic crust, is widespread in the Mersin area in southern Turkey. It generally occurs within and/or over the reddish-brown mudstone of the Kuzgun Formation (Tortonian, Miocene) and alluvial red soils of the Quaternary. The mineralogical distribution along representative caliche profiles was examined by X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy, differential thermal analysis-thermal gravimetry, and chemical techniques. Calcite is the most abundant mineral associated with minor amounts of palygorskite in caliche samples, whereas smectite is prevalent mainly in the reddish-brown mudstone and alluvial red soils of the caliche parent materials and is associated with appreciable amounts of palygorskite. These minerals are also accompanied by trace amount of illite, quartz, feldspar, and a poorly crystalline phase. Palygorskite fibers and fiber bundles were developed authigenically on euhedral or subhedral calcite crystals of the caliche units and at the edges of smectite flakes in the caliche host-rocks or sediments. Intense, continuous evaporation of subsurface soil-water resulted in an increase in pH and the dissolution of detrital smectite within the red mudstones and alluvial red soils that enclose the isolated caliche forms, and caused an increase in the Al+Fe and Mg/Ca ratio, favoring the formation of palygorskite under alkaline conditions. The calcium required for caliche formation may have originated from eolian dust, detrital carbonate minerals, and/or other caliche materials, which are dissolved by carbonic acid.

Near-time conservation palaeobiology uses palaeontological, archaeological and other geohistorical records to study the late Quaternary transition of the biosphere from its pristine past to its present-day, human-altered state. Given the scarcity of data on recent extinctions in the oceans, geohistorical records are critical for documenting human-driven extinctions and extinction threats in the marine realm. The historical perspective can provide two key insights. First, geohistorical records archive the state of pre-industrial oceans at local, regional and global scales, thus enabling the detection of recent extinctions and extirpations as well as shifts in species distribution, abundance, body size and ecosystem function. Second, we can untangle the contributions of natural and anthropogenic processes by documenting centennial-to-millennial changes in the composition and diversity of marine ecosystems before and after the onset of major human impacts. This long-term perspective identifies recently emerging patterns and processes that are unprecedented, thus allowing us to better assess human threats to marine biodiversity. Although global-scale extinctions are not well documented for brackish and marine invertebrates, geohistorical studies point to numerous extirpations, declines in ecosystem functions, increases in range fragmentation and dwindling abundance of previously widespread species, indicating that marine ecosystems are accumulating a human-driven extinction debt.

Arid regions are especially vulnerable to climate change and land use. More than one-third of Earth's population relies on these ecosystems. Modern observations lack the temporal depth to determine vegetation responses to climate and human activity, but paleoecological and archaeological records can be used to investigate these relationships. Decreasing rainfall across the Late Holocene provides a case study for vegetation response to changing hydroclimate. Rock hyrax (Procavia capensis) middens preserve paleoenvironmental indicators in arid environments where traditional archives are unavailable. Pollen from modern middens collected in Dhofar, Oman, demonstrates the reliability of this archive. Pollen, stable isotope (δ13C, δ15N), and microcharcoal data from fossil middens reveal changes in vegetation, relative moisture, and fire from 4000 cal yr BP to the present. Trees limited to moister areas (e.g., Terminalia) today existed farther inland at ~3100 cal yr BP. After ~2900 cal yr BP, taxa with more xeric affiliations (e.g., Senegalia) had increased. Coprophilous fungal spores (Sporormiella) and grazing indicator pollen revealed an amplified signal of domesticate grazing at ~1000 cal yr BP. This indicates that trees associated with semiarid environments were maintained in the interior desert during ~3000–4000 yr of decreasing rainfall and that impacts of human activity intensified after the transition to a drier environment.

African rodents of the genus Arvicanthis are presently restricted to sub-Saharan savannas and to the Nile Valley. In contrast, their distribution during the Quaternary included most of northern Africa, leading to the emergence of local fossil species. To date, there have been no comprehensive studies of Arvicanthis populations in northern Africa, neither to clarify their taxonomy nor their paleoecology. The present study aims to explore both morphology and diet of modern and fossil Arvicanthis species using geometric morphometric and dental microwear analyses on first upper molars. The geometric morphometric analysis efficiently discriminates the studied extant and fossil Arvicanthis species and allowed for the identification of probable geographical variations within the A. niloticus group. Although all extant species of the genus Arvicanthis are predominantly grass-eaters, microwear analyses also highlighted diet differences in various modern populations of A. niloticus, as well as paleodiet inferences in the A. arambourgi fossil species, but no clear link between molar size or shape and diet can be established. This work helps set the stage for a complete revision of the fossil remains of Arvicanthis from northern African Quaternary deposits, and for a better understanding of the geographical and temporal morphological variability of this genus in Africa.

Quaternary environments on the Arabian Peninsula shifted between pronounced arid conditions and phases of increased rainfall, which had a profound impact on Earth surface processes. However, while aeolian sediment dynamics are reasonably well understood, there is a lack of knowledge with regard to variability in the fluvial systems. Presented here are the findings from several locations within wadi drainage systems to the west of the Hajar Mountains (United Arab Emirates). The performance of optically stimulated luminescence dating using a customized standardized growth curve approach is investigated, showing that this approach allows reliable determination of ages by reducing the machine time required. Three main periods of fluvial activity occurred at 160–135, 43–34, and ca. 20 ka. Additional ages fall into the latest Pleistocene and Late Holocene. None of the ages coincides with major wet periods in SE Arabia that have been identified in stalagmites and by the deposition of lake sediments. It is shown that fluvial activity was partly contemporaneous (within the given time resolution) with phases of aeolian deposition and was almost continuous, but likely sporadic, during the Middle to Late Pleistocene. This highlights the need for regionally defined paleoenvironmental records to fully understand the response of dryland systems to long-term climatic change.

This paper presents 66 radiocarbon (14C) dates obtained at 33 key sites from the Polish part of the European Sand Belt. These calibrated dating results were compared to 34 high-resolution 14C dates obtained from a fluvial-aeolian sediments to identify pedogenic phases from the late Pleniglacial interval to the early Holocene. These identified pedogenic phases were correlated with Greenland ice-core records, revealing high sensitivity of the fluvio-aeolian paleoenvironment to climate changes. Two pedogenic phases were identified from the late Pleniglacial interval (Greenland Stadial GS-2.1b and GS-2.1a), three from the Bølling-Allerød interstadial (Greenland Stadial GI-1), one from the late Allerød–Younger Dryas boundary, and at least one from the Younger Dryas. The ages of these pedogenic phases reveal a distinct delay of 50–100 calendar years after the onset of cool climate conditions during GI-1, reflecting gradual withdrawal of vegetation. Soil horizons from the early Holocene do not show any clear relation with climate change, where breaks in soil formation were caused by local factors such as human activity.

Pleistocene glacial stages were implemented into a 3D basin and petroleum systems model of the northeastern Netherlands to address the influence of low surface temperatures and the mechanical loading of ice sheets on the subsurface. Two ice sheet thickness scenarios were used based on published data. Overall, Quaternary glacial stages have a substantial impact on the temperature and pressure distribution in the subsurface. Subsurface temperatures are significantly reduced during glacial stages, leading to lowered present-day temperatures and a low geothermal gradient in the shallow subsurface. In deeply buried sedimentary formations, pressures build up with every glacial advance resulting in overpressures at the present day. Glacial stages do not directly influence the petroleum generation of petroleum source rocks in the area, but high pressures during loading might have impacted petroleum expulsion of the early mature Coevorden Formation. Hydrocarbon accumulations in the Lower Saxony Basin were simulated to investigate the possible effects of mechanical ice loading and unloading on hydrocarbon migration. A loss of Coevorden Formation-sourced hydrocarbons to the surface was calculated in the Lower Saxony Basin during the glacial stages, indicating an influence of glacial loading on the Mesozoic petroleum system.

Researchers of museum collections owe a great debt of gratitude to those responsible for curating the collections; however, staff may frequently remain innocently unaware of significant contents within the accessions. Such is a group of flint artefacts in Salisbury Museum, Wiltshire, which were found in 1860 on the outskirts of the city. The collection was rediscovered during unrelated archaeological research and comprises a series of blades, which include refitting components, demonstrating that the artefacts came from undisturbed prehistoric contexts. The blade blanks had been removed from opposed platform cores, using careful core preparation and soft hammer percussion. These characteristics can be most closely paralleled by Upper Palaeolithic Federmesser industries in Europe, which date from the end of the Last Glaciation. The existence of the Upper Palaeolithic was unrecognised at the time the artefacts were found, since when two other contemporary sites have been identified in the River Avon valley as well as others across the country. The newly recognised addition extends the distribution of Upper Palaeolithic activity further up the River Avon valley to Salisbury, where five rivers congregate, providing a convenient point for further dispersal. The finding also mirrors patterns of occupation on well-drained terrace bluffs overlooking the floodplain. Research results have yielded significant data, 160 years after the collection’s discovery, expanding current knowledge of the Upper Palaeolithic in the River Avon valley and demonstrating the continued value and potential of collections in our museums.

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.

The Willandra Lakes region is a series of once interconnected and now-dry lake basins in the arid zone of southeastern Australia. It is a UNESCO World Heritage Site of cultural, archaeological, and geological significance, preserving records of Aboriginal occupation and environmental change stretching back to at least 50 ka. Linking the archaeology with the commensurate palaeoenvironmental information is complicated by the millennial time spans represented by the past hydrological record preserved in the sediment vs. the subdecadal evidence of each archaeological site. Oxygen isotope records across annual growth rings of fish otoliths (ear stones) can elucidate flooding and drying regimes on subannual scales. Otoliths from hearth sites (fireplaces) link lake hydrology with people eating fish on the lakeshore. Oxygen isotopic trends in hearth otoliths from the last glacial maximum (LGM) were previously interpreted in terms of high evaporation under dry conditions. However, this ignored hydrology-driven changes in water δ18O. Here, a mass balance model is constructed to test the effect lake desiccation has on water δ18O and how this compares with the LGM otolith records. Based on this modelling, we suggest that Lake Mungo otolith signatures are better explained by evaporation acting on full lakes rather than by lake drying.

Denitrification occurring in the oxygen minimum zone of the Arabian Sea produces nitrous oxide, a powerful greenhouse gas. Therefore, it is important to understand the mechanisms controlling denitrification's intensity and evaluate its influence on the global climate at various timescales. We studied multiple geochemical and isotopic proxies in a sediment core from the southeastern Arabian Sea (SEAS) at a high (centennial-scale) resolution. We find that since the last glacial period, both the ventilation and the productivity caused by the South Asian summer monsoon played a major role in controlling the denitrification variability in SEAS. During the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) and since the Holocene, denitrification increased in SEAS despite reduced monsoon-induced productivity. During the LGM, weakened thermohaline circulation resulted in reduced ventilation of the intermediate waters of SEAS, causing increased denitrification. During the Holocene, the increase in denitrification is caused by an enhanced inflow of oxygen-depleted Red Sea and Persian Gulf waters into the intermediate depth of SEAS owing to a rising sea level that prohibited ventilation by the Antarctic Intermediate Water. We further find millennial-scale synchronicity between denitrification in SEAS, global monsoons, and the North Atlantic climate, implying systematic linkages via greenhouse gases abundance.

In contrast to temperate regions, relationships between basin characteristics (e.g., type/size) and fossil pollen archives have received little attention in Amazonia. Here, we compare fossil pollen records of a small palm swamp (Cuatro Vientos; CV) and a nearby large lake (Laguna Chaplin, LCH) in Bolivian Amazonia, demonstrating that palm swamps can yield Quaternary pollen archives recording the history of terrestrial vegetation beyond the basin margin, rather than merely a history of localized swamp vegetation dynamics. The pollen assemblages from these two contrasting basins display remarkable agreement throughout their late Quaternary history, indicating past drier climates supported savanna landscape during the last glacial maximum (LGM; 24,000–18,000 cal yr BP) and savanna/semideciduous forest mosaic during the middle Holocene (7000-4750 cal yr BP) at both regional (inferred from LCH) and local (inferred from CV) spatial scales. Additionally, the local-scale catchment of CV and the basin's proximity to the riverine forests of the Río Paraguá enables exploration of the extent of gallery/riverine forests during the LGM and middle Holocene. We show that, between 24,000–4000 cal yr BP, riverine/gallery rainforests were substantially reduced compared with present, challenging the hypothesis that gallery rainforests were important refugia for rainforest species during the drier LGM and middle Holocene.

Lake sediments are key archives for paleoenvironmental investigation as they provide continuous records of the depositional history of the lake and its watershed. Lake Futalaufquen (42.8°S) is an oligotrophic waterbody located in Los Alerces National Park in the Andes of northern Patagonia, South America. A sedimentary sequence covering 1600 years was recovered to analyze the potential for paleoenvironmental reconstructions of the last millennia. Integration of different geochemical and mineralogical parameters and comparison with climatic reconstructions from other Patagonian records give clues for the identification of a warm period around AD 800–1000, associated with the Medieval Climatic Anomaly. The high frequency of tephra layers beginning in the mid-sixteenth century precludes identification of the Little Ice Age, recorded in northern Patagonia as a cold period from the fourteenth to the eighteenth century. Furthermore, the parameters analysed do not provide evidence of late-twentieth-century global warming. However, Zn deposition, a long-distance atmospheric transport process of anthropogenic origin, was identified during the last century.

Seismic-reflection surveys of the Isle Royale sub-basin, central Lake Superior, reveal two large end moraines and associated glacial sediments deposited during the last cycle of the Laurentide Ice Sheet in the basin. The Isle Royale moraines directly overlie bedrock and are cored with dense, acoustically massive till intercalated down-ice with acoustically stratified outwash. Till and outwash are overlain by glacial varves, a lower red unit and an upper gray unit.

The maximum extent of late Younger Dryas-age readvance into the western Lake Superior basin is uncertain, but it was probably controlled by both ice dynamics and climate. Our data indicate that during retreat from the maximum, the ice paused just long enough to construct the outer of the two moraines, >100 m high, and then retreated to the inner moraine, during which time most of the lower glacial-lacustrine sequence (red varves) was deposited. Retreat from the inner moraine coincided with a marked flux of icebergs at the calving margin and a change to gray varves. Rapid retreat may be related to both an influx of meltwater from Glacial Lake Agassiz about 10,500 cal yr BP and retreat of the calving margin down an adverse slope into the Isle Royale sub-basin.

Ramparted depressions (doughnut-shaped debris-cored ridges with peat- and/or sediment-filled central basins) are commonly perceived to represent the relict collapsed forms of permafrost ground-ice mounds (i.e. pingos or lithalsas). In Wales, UK, ramparted depressions of Late Pleistocene age have been widely attributed to permafrost-related processes. However, a variety of alternative glacial origins for these enigmatic landforms are also consistent with the available geological and geomorphological evidence, although previous studies have barely considered such alternative processes of formation. From detailed geophysical, sedimentological and remote-sensing studies at two field sites, we demonstrate that: (i) the wastage of stagnating glacier ice is a viable alternative explanation for the formation of ramparted depressions in Wales; (ii) the glacial geomorphology and geology of these landforms is analogous to supraglacial and subglacial landforms from the last Laurentide and Fennoscandian ice sheets; (iii) these landforms have significant potential for characterising the nature of deglaciation around the margins of the Irish Sea during the last glacial cycle, and may record evidence for the overextension and stagnation of the south-eastern margin of the Irish Sea Ice Stream; and (iv) investigations of ramparted depressions within formerly glaciated terrains must consider both glacial and periglacial mechanisms of formation.

For the first time in the literature, experimental determination of entire sets of exact interdiffusion coefficients in quaternary and quinary alloy systems is reported. Using the method of body-diagonal diffusion couple, a set of nine quaternary interdiffusion coefficients were evaluated in Fe–Ni–Co–Cr and a set of sixteen quinary interdiffusion coefficients were determined in a Fe–Ni–Co–Cr–Mn system, both at approximately equimolar compositions. Regions of uphill interdiffusion and zero flux planes were observed for nickel and cobalt in quinary couples, indicating the existence of strong diffusional interactions in Fe–Ni–Co–Cr–Mn alloys. The strong diffusional interactions were also manifested in the large magnitudes of cross coefficients in both the systems. The existence of strong diffusional interactions in high-entropy alloys (HEAs) as observed through experimentally determined interdiffusion coefficients in this study establishes beyond doubt the fact that cross interdiffusion coefficients cannot be ignored in HEAs.