Stop-and-go deglaciation - p585

doi:10.1038/ngeo1574

Past transitions from glacial to interglacial climates have not been smooth. It would be wise to prepare for similarly sudden episodes of ice loss in future climate changes.

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Palaeoceanography: Pacific and Atlantic synchronized - pp594-596

Samuel L. Jaccard

doi:10.1038/ngeo1563

Deep convection does not normally occur in the modern North Pacific Ocean, but that may have changed during the last deglaciation. Sea ice and surface temperature reconstructions show that if so, it was not associated with significant northward heat transport.

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Anthropology: Ice-free emigration - p596

Alicia Newton

doi:10.1038/ngeo1570

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Links between early Holocene ice-sheet decay, sea-level rise and abrupt climate change - pp601-606

Torbjörn E. Törnqvist & Marc P. Hijma

doi:10.1038/ngeo1536

The beginning of the Holocene interglacial was marked by ice-sheet melting and sea-level rise. A review of sea level and climate records identifies two sea-level jumps associated with the final drainage of glacial Lake Agassiz, and links them to an abrupt cooling event.

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Northern Hemisphere ice-sheet responses to past climate warming - pp607-613

Anders E. Carlson & Kelsey Winsor

doi:10.1038/ngeo1528

During periods of glaciation, the Northern Hemisphere was swathed by large ice sheets. A review of ice-sheet retreat during the last two deglaciations shows that land-based ice sheets responded rapidly to rising summer insolation, whereas marine-based ice sheets underwent a delayed, but more abrupt, response.

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Regional climate control of glaciers in New Zealand and Europe during the pre-industrial Holocene - pp627-630

Aaron E. Putnam, Joerg M. Schaefer, George H. Denton, David J. A. Barrell, Robert C. Finkel, Bjørn G. Andersen, Roseanne Schwartz, Trevor J. H. Chinn & Alice M. Doughty

doi:10.1038/ngeo1548

Glacier snowlines in both the European Alps and the Southern Alps of New Zealand have retreated over the past century. An analysis of glacier fluctuations in New Zealand over the past 11,000 years suggests that this synchronous behaviour is unique to the past few hundred years.

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Deep Arctic Ocean warming during the last glacial cycle - pp631-634

T. M. Cronin, G. S. Dwyer, J. Farmer, H. A. Bauch, R. F. Spielhagen, M. Jakobsson, J. Nilsson, W. M. Briggs Jr & A. Stepanova

doi:10.1038/ngeo1557

In the Arctic Ocean, a salinity gradient separates a shallow layer of cold, relatively fresh water from the warmer, saltier Atlantic water below. A reconstruction of intermediate water temperatures in the Arctic during the last glacial period shows the presence of relatively warm water that may reflect a deepening of the halocline.

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Moisture variability in the southwestern United States linked to abrupt glacial climate change -

J. D. M. Wagner, J. E. Cole, J. W. Beck, P. J. Patchett, G. M. Henderson & H. R. Barnett

doi:10.1038/ngeo707

The atmospheric response to millennial-scale circulation changes in the North Atlantic Ocean during the last glacial period has been difficult to constrain. Cave deposits from southwestern North America reveal that atmospheric moisture in this region increased in response to slowdowns of the Atlantic meridional overturning circulation.

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Increased ventilation age of the deep northeast Pacific Ocean during the last deglaciation -

David C. Lund, Alan C. Mix & John Southon

doi:10.1038/ngeo1272

The amount of radiocarbon-depleted carbon dioxide in the atmosphere rose dramatically during the last deglaciation. Estimates of the radiocarbon content of water at 2.7 km depth in the northeast Pacific Ocean over the past 24,000 years suggest that this water mass was not a significant source of this carbon.

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Retreat of the East Antarctic ice sheet during the last glacial termination -

Andrew Mackintosh, Nicholas Golledge, Eugene Domack, Robert Dunbar, Amy Leventer, Duanne White, David Pollard, Robert DeConto, David Fink, Dan Zwartz, Damian Gore & Caroline Lavoie

doi:10.1038/ngeo1061

The East Antarctic ice sheet retreated at the end of the last glacial period. Terrestrial and marine data suggest that the retreat began 14,000 years ago, indicating that the East Antarctic ice sheet probably did not contribute to meltwater pulse 1a 14,700 years ago.

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Large climate-driven changes of oceanic oxygen concentrations during the last deglaciation -

Samuel L. Jaccard & Eric D. Galbraith

doi:10.1038/ngeo1352

Ocean warming during the last deglaciation decreased the solubility of oxygen. A global compilation of marine sediment records shows that the deglacial trend of deoxygenation was overprinted by changes in ocean circulation and marine productivity.

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Extreme deepening of the Atlantic overturning circulation during deglaciation -

Stephen Barker, Gregor Knorr, Maryline J. Vautravers, Paula Diz & Luke C. Skinner

doi:10.1038/ngeo921

The termination of the last glacial period was punctuated by the collapse and resumption of Atlantic meridional overturning circulation. Sedimentary records from the South Atlantic Ocean indicate that an unusually deep limb of North Atlantic Deep Water formed after the resumption of overturning circulation during the Bølling–Allerød warm event.

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