Palaeoclimate articles within Nature Communications

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  • Article
    | Open Access

    Irregular sampling of palaeoproxies can result in the misinterpretation of environmental records. Here, the authors propose a new time series analysis method for irregularly sampled data, and reveal a see-saw relationship between the East Asian and Indonesian–Australian summer monsoons during the Holocene.

    • Deniz Eroglu
    • , Fiona H. McRobie
    •  & Jürgen Kurths

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Indirect evidence indicates the surprising occurrence of glacial events during the peak warmth of the Cretaceous world. Here, based on coupled climate-ice sheet model simulations, the authors show that such events were likely thwarted by palaeogeographic reorganisations and complex ocean-atmosphere feedbacks.

    • Jean-Baptiste Ladant
    •  & Yannick Donnadieu

  • Article
    | Open Access

    A long-standing debate regarding the Pliocene history of the East Antarctic Ice Sheet was spurred by the discovery of marine diatoms in the Transantarctic Mountains. Here the authors show that the diatoms were emplaced by wind following a retreat of the ice sheet into coastal basins and subsequent isostatic emergence.

    • Reed P. Scherer
    • , Robert M. DeConto
    •  & Richard B. Alley

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The onset of modern central Asian atmospheric circulation is often linked to the interplay of late Cenozoic paleogeographic changes and global cooling. Here the authors present sedimentary provenance data from early Cenozoic dust deposits, which indicate long-term stability of the central Asian high pressure system.

    • A. Licht
    • , G. Dupont-Nivet
    •  & D. Giesler

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The cause of a 20% decline in sea floor calcareous foraminifera species during the Mid-Pleistocene remains enigmatic. Here, the authors present new geochemical evidence, from the Tasman Sea that supports a change in phytoplankton food source as the primary driver.

    • Sev Kender
    • , Erin L. McClymont
    •  & Henry Elderfield

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Despite the importance of Arctic sea-ice in the global climate system, a paucity of pre-Quaternary sedimentary archives limits our understanding of its long-term history. Here, based on ancient sediments revealed by submarine landslides, the authors reconstruct Arctic sea-ice conditions during the Miocene.

    • Ruediger Stein
    • , Kirsten Fahl
    •  & Gerrit Lohmann

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Natural climate variability and persistency are reflected in the scaling properties of climate records. Here, the authors show that the scaling properties of interglacial and glacial climates are distinctively different: The former is monofractal while the latter is multifractal with much longer range memory.

    • Zhi-Gang Shao
    •  & Peter D. Ditlevsen

  • Review Article
    | Open Access

    The mid-Pliocene Warm Period (mPWP), analogous to future climate conditions, is considered a test-bed for the predictive capability of climate models. Here, Dowsett et al. review our understanding of the mPWP and discuss recent and future advances in the context of proxy data/model integration.

    • Alan M. Haywood
    • , Harry J. Dowsett
    •  & Aisling M. Dolan

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Dynamics of the Laurasian Seaway are thought to have had wide effects on oceanography and climate in the mid-Mesozoic. Here, the authors show evidence for seawater temperature change, ascribed to tectonic uplift that impeded poleward oceanic heat transport and triggered a cool climate mode in the earliest Middle Jurassic.

    • Christoph Korte
    • , Stephen P. Hesselbo
    •  & Nicolas Thibault

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Theories of Cenozoic mountain uplift and associated global cooling assume that eroded mountain sediments are stored in marine basins. Here, based on detailed provenance data, Nie et al. show that Northeast Tibetan sediments are in fact stored inland, in the Chinese Loess Plateau and Mu Us desert.

    • Junsheng Nie
    • , Thomas Stevens
    •  & Baotian Pan

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The Younger Dryas cooling event has been identified in ice records in the Northern Hemisphere, but the effects of this cold snap on the tropics are poorly known. Here, the authors present a speleothem record and model simulations, showing that tropical hydroclimate recovered slower than temperatures in Greenland.

    • J.W. Partin
    • , T.M. Quinn
    •  & F.W. Taylor

  • Article |

    Accurate forecasting of tropical precipitation is dependent on our understanding of the hydrological cycle. Here, the authors present a speleothem-derived record of Mesoamerican precipitation variability since the 1930s, and show that multi-decadal declines in rainfall coincide with major volcanic eruptions.

    • Amos Winter
    • , Davide Zanchettin
    •  & Hai Cheng

  • Article |

    Due to a paucity of terrestrial data, knowledge of the size of the East Antarctic ice sheet in the past is limited. Here, the authors present isotope data of sulfates from the Lewis Cliff Ice Tongue moraine, which suggest temporary existence of ice-free conditions in central Antarctica since the Miocene.

    • Tao Sun
    • , Richard A. Socki
    •  & Eric Tonui

  • Article |

    Marine sedimentary 231Pa/230Th ratios are considered a promising tool for the investigation of past modes of ocean circulation. Here, the authors present a compilation of new and existing Atlantic sedimentary 231Pa/230Th ratios and interpret these data in the context of abrupt cooling during Heinrich Stadial 1.

    • Louisa I. Bradtmiller
    • , Jerry F. McManus
    •  & Laura F. Robinson

  • Article |

    Palaeoclimate research often focuses on continental, hemispheric and global scales, neglecting the local-scale changes of most importance to human adaptation. Here, the authors propose a new tree-ring-based methodology, capable of producing high-frequency, highly local climate-field reconstructions.

    • R. Kyle Bocinsky
    •  & Timothy A. Kohler

  • Article |

    Synoptic-scale atmospheric pressure patterns control moisture delivery and thus drought occurrence across western North America, yet long-term records are lacking. Here, the authors use a novel combination of tree-ring data and self-organizing maps to reconstruct and analyse pressure patterns since AD 1500.

    • Erika K. Wise
    •  & Matthew P. Dannenberg

  • Article |

    Comparison of climate model hindcasts with proxy data is essential to improve model reliability, yet standardized palaeoclimate data sets are lacking. Here, Heiri et al. compare chironomid-based palaeotemperature records with the ECHAM-4 atmospheric general circulation model, showing excellent agreement.

    • Oliver Heiri
    • , Stephen J. Brooks
    •  & André F. Lotter

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Claims that the end-Ordovician Earth was characterized by giant ice sheets, yet paradoxically warm oceans and elevated CO2 levels are open to debate. Here, Ghienne et al. examine sedimentary records from low and high palaeolatitude settings and propose a revision of the mechanisms for end-Ordovician events.

    • Jean-François Ghienne
    • , André Desrochers
    •  & Jan Veizer

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Although it has been widely suggested that the mid-Holocene minimum methane emissions are associated with hydrological change, direct evidence is missing. Here, the authors present evidence from the Tibetan Plateau using tracers of methanogenesis and methanotrophy, in combination with climate simulations.

    • Yanhong Zheng
    • , Joy S. Singarayer
    •  & Richard D. Pancost

  • Article |

    The Southern Annular Mode (SAM) strongly impacts modern Southern Hemisphere climate, yet insight into its pre-industrial behaviour is lacking. Here, the authors present a high-resolution lake record and show that SAM variability coincided with major centennial-scale climate changes over the past 3,000 years.

    • Patricio I. Moreno
    • , I. Vilanova
    •  & R. De Pol-Holz

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The Great Barrier Reef (GBR) is under threat from rising ocean temperatures, yet its response to past temperature change is poorly known. Felis et al. show that the GBR experienced a much steeper temperature gradient during the last deglaciation, suggesting it may be more resilient than previously thought.

    • Thomas Felis
    • , Helen V. McGregor
    •  & Jody M. Webster

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The Late Cretaceous experienced significant cooling, yet a lack of low-latitude records mean the regional extent of this cooling is poorly constrained. Linnert et al. present a TEX86sea surface temperature record from a palaeolatitude of ~35 °N and show that Late Cretaceous cooling was global in nature.

    • Christian Linnert
    • , Stuart A. Robinson
    •  & Ernest E. Russell

  • Article |

    Peatlands both store and emit potent greenhouse gases, yet their contribution to carbon dynamics during the past is poorly constrained. Here, Packalen et al.present new age constraints for peat development in the Hudson Bay Lowlands and quantify carbon storage and methane emissions during the Holocene.

    • Maara S. Packalen
    • , Sarah A. Finkelstein
    •  & James W. McLaughlin

  • Article |

    The precise contributions of solar forcing, the carbon cycle and glaciation to the pacing of global climate remains unresolved. Using four 3D ice-sheet models, de Boer et al.show that Antarctic ice volume and carbon-cycle dynamics varied coherently during the Pleistocene, as has been observed in the Miocene.

    • B. de Boer
    • , Lucas J. Lourens
    •  & Roderik S.W. van de Wal

  • Article |

    The global monsoon is considered to have provided an important interhemispheric climate link during deglaciation, but direct evidence is lacking. Here, climate evidence from speleothems suggests that rapid latitudinal displacements of the Australasian monsoon play a key role in deglacial warming.

    • Linda K. Ayliffe
    • , Michael K. Gagan
    •  & Bambang W. Suwargadi

  • Article |

    The El Niño-Southern Oscillation is one of the largest sources of global climate variability, yet our understanding relative to the Topical Pacific mean state is poor. Here, geochemical analyses of marine plankton reveal a strong link between zonal sea-surface temperatures and ENSO variability.

    • Aleksey Yu Sadekov
    • , Raja Ganeshram
    •  & Alexander W. Tudhope

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The astronomical time scale is an essential geochronological tool, but is presently limited to the Cenozoic and Mesozoic eras. Here, Wuet al.time-calibrate Milankovitch cycles identified in strata from South China and extend this essential tool into the late Permian.

    • Huaichun Wu
    • , Shihong Zhang
    •  & Tianshui Yang

  • Article |

    Mineral cave deposits—speleothems—provide a record of past rainfall changes. This study presents a speleothem data-set from southwestern Oregon, revealing winter climate change over the past 13,000 years with abrupt transitions between warm-dry and cold-wet regimes influenced by solar forcing.

    • Vasile Ersek
    • , Peter U. Clark
    •  & R. Lawrence Edwards

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