orbital scale evolution of the indian summer monsoon since 1 2 ma evidence from clay mineral records at iodp expedition 355 site u1456 in the eastern arabian sea abstract clay mineral assemblages at international ocean discovery program expedition 355 site u1456 drilled in the eastern arabian sea have been investigated to reveal the sediment provenances and reconstruct the erosion weathering patterns in the western himalaya and indian subcontinent thus constraining the evolution of the indian summer monsoon and its forcing mechanism since 1 2 ma the clay mineral assemblages at site u1456 mainly comprise smectite with an average value of 59 and illite with an average value of 33 with chlorite with an average value of 5 and kaolinite with an average value of 3 as minor constituents in terms of sediment provenance our results indicate that illite and chlorite are predominantly derived from the indus river which originates from the western himalaya and karakoram while smectite is primarily sourced from the narmada river and tapti river in the deccan traps with a non negligible contribution from the indus river in some cases variations in smectite illite chlorite ratio are ultimately controlled by the indian summer monsoon which is characterized by approximate glacial interglacial cyclicity showing higher values i e enhanced chemical weathering during interglacial periods in addition a major shift in smectite illite chlorite ratio at 0 9 ma is correlated to the mid pleistocene transition 1 2 0 9 ma both the marine isotope stage 13 event 533 478 ka and the mid brunhes event 430 ka are also recorded in the clay mineral proxies based on the spectral analysis smectite illite chlorite ratio displays a transition from nonprimary periodicity 29 kyr to strong eccentricity 100 kyr and precession 22 kyr periodicities at approximately 0 9 ma which corresponds to the mid pleistocene transition our study indicates that the variability of the indian summer monsoon at orbital timescales is controlled by high latitude i e ice volume and low latitude i e summer insolation processes

the evolution of el nino past and future abstract we review forecasts of the future of el nino and the southern oscillation enso a coupled instability of the ocean atmosphere system in the tropical pacific with global impacts enso in the modern world is briefly described and the physics of the enso cycle is discussed particular attention is given to the bjerknes feedback the instability mechanism which figures prominently in enso past and future our knowledge of enso in the paleoclimate record has expanded rapidly within the last 5 yr the enso cycle is present in all relevant records going back 130 kyr it was systematically weaker during the early and middle holocene and model studies indicate that this results from reduced amplification in the late summer and early fall a consequence of the altered mean climate in response to boreal summer perihelion data from corals shows substantial decadal and longer variations in the strength of the enso cycle within the past 1000 yr it is suggested that this may be due to solar and volcanic variations in solar insolation amplified by the bjerknes feedback there is some evidence that this feedback has operated in the 20th century and some model results indicate that it will hold sway in the greenhouse future but it is very far from conclusive the comprehensive general circulation models used for future climate projections leave us with an indeterminate picture of enso s future some predict more enso activity some less with the highly uncertain consensus forecast indicating little change

the central slave basement complex part ii age and tectonic significance of high strain zones along the basement cover contact the basement cover high strain zone enveloping parts of the sleepy dragon complex northeast of yellowknife slave province canada has been reinvestigated integrated stratigraphic structural and geochronological data show that the high strain zone is of regional extent and is best interpreted as a decollement between crystalline ca 2 9 3 3 ga rocks of the central slave basement complex and pre 2687 ma cover rocks three temporally distinct mafic dyke swarms occur within the high strain zone the two oldest of these constrain the timing of the high strain event to between 2734 2 and 2687 1 ma at the time of decollement development the cover stratigraphy consisted of i the central slave cover group a thin pre 2734 ma succession of mafic and ultramafic volcanic rocks conglomerates fuchsitic quartzites minor rhyolites and banded iron formation and ii an overlying sequence of tholeiitic pillow basalts the central slave cover group is considered to be autochthonous whereas a variety of

reevaluation of the oxygen isotopic composition of planktonic foraminifera experimental results and revised paleotemperature equations cultured planktonic foraminifera orbulina universa symbiotic and globigerina bulloides nonsymbiotic are used to reexamine temperature 18o relationships at 15 25 c relationships for both species can be described by linear equations equations for o universa grown under low light ll and high light hl share a slope of 4 80 0 21 c 1 with a hl ll offset of 0 33 due to symbiont photosynthetic activity the effect of co32 on o universa is 0 002 mol 1 kg 1 and is insensitive to temperature for g bulloides ontogenetic effects produce size related trends in temperature 18o whereby larger shells are enriched in 18o relative to smaller specimens the o universa temperature 18o relationships are more accurate than previously published equations for describing plankton tow data our equations do not explain planktonic core top data with the same precision but provide a good fit to benthic cibicidoides data below 10 c temperature 18o relationships for g bulloides provide good agreement with field data for this species from the northeast pacific

obliquity and precession as pacemakers of pleistocene deglaciations abstract the milankovitch theory states that the orbital eccentricity precession and obliquity of the earth influence our climate by modulating the summer insolation at high latitudes in the northern hemisphere despite considerable success of this theory in explaining climate change over the pleistocene epoch 2 6 0 01 myr ago it is inconclusive with regard to which combination of orbital elements paced the 100 kyr glacial interglacial cycles over the late pleistocene here we explore the role of the orbital elements in pacing the pleistocene deglaciations by modeling ice volume variations in a bayesian approach when comparing models this approach takes into account the uncertainties in the data as well as the different degrees of model complexity we find that the earth s obliquity axial tilt plays a dominant role in pacing the glacial cycles over the whole pleistocene while precession only becomes important in pacing major deglaciations after the transition of the dominant period from 41 kyr to 100 kyr the mid pleistocene transition we also find that geomagnetic field and orbital inclination variations are unlikely to have paced the pleistocene deglaciations we estimate that the mid pleistocene transition took place over a 220 kyr interval centered on a time 715 kyr ago although the data permit a range of 600 1000 kyr this transition occurring within just two 100 kyr cycles indicates a relatively rapid change in the climate response to insolation

eight glacial cycles from an antarctic ice core the antarctic vostok ice core provided compelling evidence of the nature of climate and of climate feedbacks over the past 420 000 years marine records suggest that the amplitude of climate variability was smaller before that time but such records are often poorly resolved moreover it is not possible to infer the abundance of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere from marine records here we report the recovery of a deep ice core from dome c antarctica that provides a climate record for the past 740 000 years for the four most recent glacial cycles the data agree well with the record from vostok the earlier period between 740 000 and 430 000 years ago was characterized by less pronounced warmth in interglacial periods in antarctica but a higher proportion of each cycle was spent in the warm mode the transition from glacial to interglacial conditions about 430 000 years ago termination v resembles the transition into the present interglacial period in terms of the magnitude of change in temperatures and greenhouse gases but there are significant differences in the patterns of change the interglacial stage following termination v was exceptionally long 28 000 years compared to for example the 12 000 years recorded so far in the present interglacial period given the similarities between this earlier warm period and today our results may imply that without human intervention a climate similar to the present one would extend well into the future

interglacial hydroclimate in the tropical west pacific through the late pleistocene records of atmospheric carbon dioxide concentration pco 2 and antarctic temperature have revealed an intriguing change in the magnitude of interglacial warmth and pco 2 at around 430 000 years ago 430 ka but the global climate repercussions of this change remain elusive here we present a stalagmite based reconstruction of tropical west pacific hydroclimate from 570 to 210 ka the results suggest similar regional precipitation amounts across the four interglacials contained in the record implying that tropical hydroclimate was insensitive to interglacial differences in pco 2 and high latitude temperature in contrast during glacial terminations drying in the tropical west pacific accompanied cooling events in northern high latitudes therefore the tropical convective heat engine can either stabilize or amplify global climate change depending on the nature of the climate forcing

the evolution of pleistocene climate a time series approach abstract in the later part of the pleistocene variations in global ice volume have been dominated by an approximate 100 000 year cycle analysis of 2 myr long oxygen isotope record from an equatorial pacific core indicates that this is true only for the last 900 000 years prior to this time the amplitude of the 100 000 year cycle is much reduced as is the variance of all oscillations with periods greater than 60 000 years based on results of time series analysis of this 2 myr long record the pleistocene glacial cycles can be divided into three sections 1 the late pleistocene 0 900 kyr b p where the variations in the isotope record are dominated by the 100 000 year cycle 2 the middle pleistocene 900 1450 kyr b p in which low frequency components are not as important as in the later period of the pleistocene and 3 the early pleistocene late pliocene 1450 2000 kyr b p where general reductions of importance at all frequencies is seen as compared to the later intervals recent modeling efforts which describe variations in global ice volume show that the dominant low frequency component observed in the late pleistocene can result from different time constants for the rate of glacial growth and decay in response to variations in the earth s orbital parameters it is hypothesized that during the early pleistocene the rate of growth and decay of glaciers were more similar and that continental erosion by successive glacial advances lowered the land surface in areas of ice cap formation to below sea level when the ice caps became marine based more rapid decay of the ice became possible

the middle pleistocene transition characteristics mechanisms and implications for long term changes in atmospheric pco2 abstract the emergence of low frequency high amplitude quasi periodic 100 kyr glacial variability during the middle pleistocene in the absence of any significant change in orbital forcing indicates a fundamental change internal to the climate system this middle pleistocene transition mpt began 1250 ka and was complete by 700 ka its onset was accompanied by decreases in sea surface temperatures ssts in the north atlantic and tropical ocean upwelling regions and by an increase in african and asian aridity and monsoonal intensity during the mpt long term average ice volume gradually increased by 50 m sea level equivalent whereas low frequency ice volume variability experienced a 100 kyr lull centered on 1000 ka followed by its reappearance 900 ka although as a broad band of power rather than a narrow persistent 100 kyr cycle additional changes at 900 ka indicate this to be an important time during the mpt beginning with an 80 kyr event of extreme sst cooling followed by the partial recovery and subsequent stabilization of long term north atlantic and tropical ocean ssts increasing southern ocean sst variability primarily associated with warmer interglacials the loss of permanent subpolar sea ice cover and the emergence of low frequency variability in pacific ssts and global deep ocean circulation since 900 ka ice sheets have been the only component of the climate system to exhibit consistent low frequency variability with the exception of a near universal organization of low frequency power associated with marine isotope stages 11 and 12 all other components show an inconsistent distribution of power in frequency time space suggesting a highly nonlinear system response to orbital and ice sheet forcing most hypotheses for the origin of the mpt invoke a response to a long term cooling possibly induced by decreasing atmospheric pco2 none of these hypotheses however accounts for the geological constraint that the earliest northern hemisphere ice sheets covered a similar or larger area than those that followed the mpt given that the mpt was associated with an increase in ice volume this constraint requires that post mpt ice sheets were substantially thicker than pre mpt ice sheets indicating a change in subglacial conditions that influence ice dynamics we review evidence in support of the hypothesis that such an increase in ice thickness occurred as crystalline precambrian shield bedrock became exposed by glacial erosion of a thick mantle of regolith this exposure of a high friction substrate caused thicker ice sheets with an attendant change in their response to the orbital forcing marine carbon isotope data indicate a rapid transfer of organic carbon to inorganic carbon in the ocean system during the mpt if this carbon came from terrigenous sources an increase in atmospheric pco2 would be likely which is inconsistent with evidence for widespread cooling apparently rapid carbon transfer from terrestrial sources is difficult to reconcile with gradual erosion of regolith a more likely source of organic carbon and nutrients which would mitigate pco2 rise is from shelf and upper slope marine sediments which were fully exposed for the first time in millions of years in response to thickening ice sheets and falling sealevels during the mpt modeling indicates that regolith erosion and resulting exposure of crystalline bedrock would cause an increase in long term silicate weathering rates in good agreement with marine sr and os isotopic records we use a carbon cycle model to show that a post mpt increase in silicate weathering rates would lower atmospheric pco2 by 7 12 ppm suggesting that the attendant cooling may have been an important feedback in causing the mpt

the mid pleistocene transition in the tropical pacific a sea surface temperature sst record based on planktonic foraminiferal magnesium calcium ratios from a site in the western equatorial pacific warm pool reveals that glacial interglacial oscillations in sst shifted from a period of 41 000 to 100 000 years at the mid pleistocene transition 950 000 years before the present sst changes at both periodicities were synchronous with eastern pacific cold tongue ssts but preceded changes in continental ice volume the timing and nature of tropical pacific sst changes over the mid pleistocene transition implicate a shift in the periodicity of radiative forcing by atmospheric carbon dioxide as the cause of the switch in climate periodicities at this time

paleoclimate history of galapagos surface waters over the last 135 000 yr abstract records of planktonic and benthic foraminiferal 18 o and planktonic mg ca from core tr163 22 just northwest of the galapagos islands reveal a detailed 250 450 year resolution climate history of the region over the last 135 thousand years kyr sea surface temperatures ssts reconstructed from g ruber mg ca averaged 24 3 0 4 c during the holocene 22 6 0 6 c during marine isotope stage mis 2 3 and 4 and 26 0 0 9 c during mis 5e changes in sst lead changes in both planktonic and benthic 18 o by an average 3 kyr suggesting that sst changes in this region predated continental ice volume changes changes in sst display clear millennial scale variability especially in marine isotope stage 3 with behavior somewhat similar to antarctic proxy air temperature and south pacific sst records removal of the temperature component from the planktonic 18 o record demonstrates that glacial interglacial 18 o water changes at this site were 1 0 0 2 similar to estimates for mean ocean shifts implying that salinity changes due to regional hydrological variation between the last glacial maximum and holocene in the galapagos region were minimal comparison between the tr163 22 sst record and an sst record from core tr163 19 north of the equatorial front reveals a largely similar broad scale climate history suggesting that changes in the galapagos region were caused by large scale forcing rather than by local or regional dynamical changes changes in atmospheric greenhouse forcing are the most plausible explanation for the observed large scale climate changes in the eastern equatorial pacific

late pliocene monsoon linkage in the tropical south china sea the onset of northern hemisphere glaciation nhg 2 7 ma ago coincided with prominent climate changes in the tropical regions such as the african and the asian monsoons however the relationship between tropical and sub tropical monsoonal variations and high northern latitude ice sheet expansion as well as processes such as late pliocene tropical sea surface temperature sst change is not clear our late pliocene 2 5 3 3 ma monsoon proxy records and mg ca derived sst records at ocean drilling program odp site 1143 from the southern south china sea scs reveal that while tropical sst shows a stepwise decrease of 2 3 c during this period the east asian monsoon gradually strengthens in response to the onset of the nhg at the 41 kyr and 23 kyr bands ice volume change lags tropical sst by 4 kyr but leads the east asian monsoon by 12 17 kyr our finding highlights the significant role of the tropical pacific region in driving global climate change in the late pliocene which has invariable leading phase relative to the ice volume change as in the late pleistocene however the east asian monsoon shows a linear response to the onset of the nhg in the late pliocene with much bigger phase lagged at the 41 kyr and 23 kyr bands than in the pleistocene which suggests that at the obliquity and precession bands the phases of the plio pleistocene east asian monsoon variations relative to the global ice volume changes are not constant but variable therefore the east asian monsoons are not only simply driven by northern summer insolation at the precession period but also modulated by global ice volume change in high latitudes

links between the onset of modern walker circulation and the mid pleistocene climate transition sea surface temperatures ssts reconstructed from ocean drilling program sites 806 and 849 in the western and eastern equatorial pacific provide a history of the strength of the walker circulation between 1 5 and 0 5 ma a progressive cooling in the eastern equatorial pacific is paralleled by intensification of the equatorial zonal sst gradient that began 1 17 ma prior to the expansion of global ice volume associated with the mid pleistocene climate transition the ssts in the eastern equatorial pacific and the zonal gradient reached modern values by 0 9 ma we propose that this onset and intensification of the modern walker circulation reduced heat flux but increased moisture transport to high latitudes leading to the development of more extensive ice sheets and the shift toward the 100 ka world

expansion of subarctic water masses in the north atlantic and pacific oceans and implications for mid pleistocene ice sheet growth 1 past surface ocean circulation changes associated with the mid pleistocene transition 0 9 0 6 ma were reconstructed in the northern north atlantic odp 983 and the northwest pacific odp 882 using proxies for subarctic subpolar water mass distributions c37 4 alkenone and sea surface temperature u37 both sites experienced a secular expansion of subarctic waters from 1 15 ma spanning both glacial and interglacial intervals after 0 9 ma low c37 4 at site 983 records a northward retreat of subarctic waters during interglacials in the atlantic while continued high glacial c37 4 indicate extensive subarctic waters during glacial maxima associated with the development of the larger late pleistocene ice sheets in contrast a secular decline in c37 4 occurred at site 882 from 0 9 to 0 5 ma marking a more gradual retreat of subarctic conditions in the pacific it is proposed that the expansion of subarctic waters between 1 15 and 0 9 ma exerted negative feedbacks to the moisture supply to the ice sheet source regions and may account for the apparent delayed ice sheet response to atmosphere ocean circulation changes associated with the mid pleistocene transition that began as early as 1 2 ma

sea ice control of plio pleistocene tropical pacific climate evolution marine proxies of sea surface temperature sst indicate that the tropical pacific thermal gradient intensified through the plio pleistocene and peaked during pleistocene glaciations the cause of this variability which has been linked to the initiation of the walker circulation is uncertain here we hypothesize that plio pleistocene tropical climate variability was coupled to high latitude southern hemisphere climate change specifically sea ice extent we use a coupled ocean atmosphere general circulation model to investigate the influences of sea ice extent and atmospheric co2 on the tropical pacific thermal structure in the model co2 radiative forcing in the absence of any sea ice feedbacks has little influence on the tropical sst gradient a 180 ppm reduction in co2 causes the sst gradient to decrease by 0 4 c in comparison an expansion of southern hemisphere high latitude sea ice reduces tropical ssts and enhances the sst gradient in the tropical pacific by as much as 3 5 c tropical cooling is primarily due to the advection and upwelling of waters into the eastern equatorial pacific that were cooled by sensible heat loss at the sea ice margin in the southern pacific an energy balance analysis indicates that the ocean heat flux into the eastern equatorial pacific decreases by 44 this mechanism provides an intimate coupling between the tropical pacific and the high latitude southern hemisphere through the thermocline circulation

role of tropics in changing the response to milankovich forcing some three million years ago appeared in regions that today have intense oceanic upwelling the eastern equatorial pacific and the coastal zones of southwestern africa and california there was furthermore a significant change in the earth s response to milankovich forcing obliquity signals became large but those associated with precession and eccentricity remained the same the latter change in the earth s response can be explained by hypothesizing that the global cooling during the cenozoic affected the thermal structure of the ocean it caused a gradual shoaling of the thermocline around 3 ma the thermocline was sufficiently shallow for the winds to bring cold water from below the thermocline to the surface in certain upwelling regions this brought into play feedbacks involving

new insights into the formation of fayalitic olivine from allende dark inclusions abstract although considerable progress has been made in unraveling the origin s of fayalitic olivines in dark inclusions dis many questions remain still unresolved and or controversial we combine a chemical and petrographic study of the allende dark inclusion 4884 2b amnh new york and atem studies of a fragment of the dark inclusion allende af nhm vienna and discuss an alternative way in which fayalitic olivines could have formed allende dark inclusion 4884 2b contains a few aggregates with variable proportions of transparent and feathery olivine two such objects aggregates a and b are the focus of this study as they preserve glasses that can help in deciphering the nature of the processes involved during olivine growth and subsequent olivine transformation the petrographic and chemical characteristics of aggregates a and b indicate that the forsteritic stack olivines may be pseudomorphs of clear olivine crystals the atem studies in all af suggest that fayalitic olivines may be the result of secondary processes e g metasomatic exchange reactions operating in the solar nebula transformation may have occurred through the mediation of a dry gas phase involving nonvolatile major elements such as mg and fe e g dohmen et al 1998 this mechanism could reveal olivine growth patterns e g stacked platelets due to a rapid growth regime and may have contributed to the development of their fibrous aspect while preserving the shape i e volume of the crystals this highly selective process did completely or partially transform ferromagnesian minerals but affected the fine grained mesostasis only slightly

the pliocene paradox mechanisms for a permanent el nino during the early pliocene 5 to 3 million years ago globally averaged temperatures were substantially higher than they are today even though the external factors that determine climate were essentially the same in the tropics el nino was continual or permanent rather than intermittent the appearance of northern continental glaciers and of cold surface waters in oceanic upwelling zones in low latitudes both coastal and equatorial signaled the termination of those warm climate conditions and the end of permanent el nino this led to the amplification of obliquity but not precession cycles in equatorial sea surface temperatures and in global ice volume with the former leading the latter by several thousand years a possible explanation is that the gradual shoaling of the oceanic thermocline reached a threshold around 3 million years ago when the winds started bringing cold waters to the surface in low latitudes this introduced feedbacks involving ocean atmosphere interactions that along with ice albedo feedbacks amplified obliquity cycles a future melting of glaciers changes in the hydrological cycle and a deepening of the thermocline could restore the warm conditions of the early pliocene

origin of the middle pleistocene transition by ice sheet erosion of regolith the transition in the middle pleistocene 0 9 ma seen in 18o deep sea core records from relatively low amplitude high frequency 41 kyr to high amplitude low frequency 100 kyr ice volume variations under essentially the same orbital forcing can be attributed to a change from an all soft bedded to a mixed hard soft bedded laurentide ice sheet through glacial erosion of a thick regolith and resulting exposure of unweathered crystalline bedrock a one dimensional ice sheet and bedrock model which includes transport of sediment and ice by subglacial sediment deformation demonstrates that a widespread deforming sediment layer maintains thin ice sheets before the transition which respond linearly to the dominant 23 and 41 kyr orbital forcing progressive removal of the sediment layer eventually causes a transition to thicker ice sheets whose dominant timescale of change 100 kyr reflects nonlinear deglaciation processes in model simulations over the last 3 ma initialized with no ice and a uniform 50 m sediment layer the time series of ice volume and extent agree in several important aspects with the observed records

x ray fluorescence core scanning records of chemical weathering and monsoon evolution over the past 5 myr in the southern south china sea with benthic foraminiferal d 18 o reveal that phases of the east asian summer monsoon abruptly changed by more than 90 at 4 0 ma 2 75 ma 1 0 ma and 0 6 ma relative to global ice volume at the obliquity and the precession bands over the past 5 myr strong 400 kyr and 100 kyr cycles in the k al and ti al records consistently exist over the past 5 myr particularly these cycles are highly coherent with the long and short eccentricity cycles in the truncated insolation at 65 n indicating an eccentricity forcing of the east asian summer monsoon the chemical weathering recorded in the elemental records of odp site 1143 also shows highly coherent relationship with the ocean carbon reservoir at the eccentricity the obliquity and the precession bands over the late pliocene and pleistocene

climate impact of late quaternary equatorial pacific sea surface temperature variations magnesium calcium data from planktonic foraminifera in equatorial pacific sediment cores demonstrate that tropical pacific sea surface temperatures ssts were 2 8 0 7 c colder than the present at the last glacial maximum glacial interglacial temperature differences as great as 5 c are observed over the last 450 thousand years changes in sst coincide with changes in antarctic air temperature and precede changes in continental ice volume by about 3 thousand years suggesting that tropical cooling played a major role in driving ice age climate comparison of sst estimates from eastern and western sites indicates that the equatorial pacific zonal sst gradient was similar or somewhat larger during glacial episodes extraction of a salinity proxy from the magnesium calcium and oxygen isotope data indicates that transport of water vapor into the western pacific was enhanced during glacial episodes

are the 41 kyr glacial oscillations a linear response to milankovitch forcing abstract the characteristics of glacial oscillations changed drastically 0 8 ma ago at the mid pleistocene transition during the past 0 8 ma the 100 kyr glacial interglacial oscillations were strongly asymmetric i e long glacial intervals of growth followed by rapid intervals of deglaciation the 40 kyr oscillations prior to the mid pleistocene transition were of a smaller amplitude and less asymmetrical looking the smaller amplitude apparently symmetric form and period that matches that of obliquity suggests that these oscillations were a linear response to milankovitch forcing while the 100 kyr oscillations are attributed either to some nonlinear self sustained variability due to a mechanism internal to the climate system itself or to nonlinear amplification of the insolation forcing the significant strengthening of the 100 kyr eccentricity power in the past 800 kyr is one of the intriguing questions of climate history here we show that glacial interglacial oscillations pre mid pleistocene transition are in fact significantly asymmetric this asymmetry may contradict a straight forward linear milankovitch explanation and we therefore suggest that the glacial oscillations before and after the transition may both be explained as self sustained variability although the possibility of nonlinear response to insolation forcing still exists the role of milankovitch forcing is in setting the phase of the oscillations e g time of terminations and their period rather in being the main driving force of the oscillations this is demonstrated using a simple model based on the sea ice switch mechanism of gildor and tziperman paleoceanography 15 2000 605

towards a middle pleistocene terrestrial climate reconstruction based on herpetofaunal assemblages from the iberian peninsula state of the art and perspectives abstract the pattern of the varying climatic conditions in southern europe over the last million years is well known from isotope studies on deep ocean sediment cores and the long pollen records that have been produced for lacustrine and marine sedimentary sequences from greece italy and the iberian margin however although relative glacial and interglacial intensities are well studied there are still few proxies that permit quantitative terrestrial temperature and precipitation reconstruction in this context fauna based climate reconstructions based on evidence preserved in archaeological or palaeontological sites are of great interest even if they only document short windows of that climate variability because a they provide a range of temperature and precipitation estimates that are understandable in comparison with present climate b they may allow the testing of predicted temperature changes under scenarios of future climate change and c quantitative temperature and precipitation estimates for past glacials and interglacials for specific regions latitudes can help to understand their effects on flora fauna and hominids as they are directly associated with those cultural and or biological events moreover such reconstructions can bring further arguments to the discussion about important climatic events like the mid bruhnes event a climatic transition between moderate warmths and greater warmths during interglacials in this paper we review a decade of amphibian and reptile based climate reconstructions carried out for the iberian peninsula using the mutual ecogeographic range method in order to present a regional synthesis from mis 22 to mis 6 discuss the climate pattern in relation to the mid bruhnes event and the thermal amplitude suggested by these estimates and finally to identify the chronological gaps that have still to be investigated

the mid pleistocene transition in the subtropical southwest pacific 1 reconstructions of subtropical southwest pacific climate variability over the pleistocene were derived from coupled planktic foraminiferal 18o mg ca measurements taken from a southern coral sea sediment core a clear shift from 40 kyr to 100 kyr modes of reconstructed glacial interglacial sea surface temperature sst variability is seen over the mid pleistocene transition and these fluctuations are shown to have remained coherent with the orbital obliquity cycle across the transition the likely origin of this strong obliquity signal in subtropical southwest pacific sst is shown to be the southern high latitudes and comparison with existing sst reconstructions from the equatorial pacific is consistent with the communication of the signal occurring principally by greenhouse gas forcing in contrast to the sst reconstruction regional hydrological cycle variability based on the calculated local component of 18osw change does not show significant coherence with obliquity after 1000 ka the decoupling of the sst and hydrological cycle responses over the mid pleistocene transition allows constraints to be placed on the evolution and extent of orbitally paced fluctuations within the coupled low latitude ocean atmosphere system

biogeochemical controls on palaeoceanographic environmental proxies a review scientific observations of our oceans and climate go back no more than a couple of hundred years most of our information about the evolution of earth s ocean climate system relies instead on proxies primarily measurements of sediment components that respond to changes in environmental parameters this paper provides an overview of some of the most important biological and geochemical proxies and outlines their contribution to our understanding of the ocean climate system we also discuss some of the challenges that need to be overcome to obtain accurate records these include better understanding of the controls on the mechanisms of biomineralization the impacts of post depositional dissolution and diagenesis on primary proxy relationships proxy validation and analytical considerations

modelling northern hemisphere ice volume over the last 3 ma the northern hemisphere ice sheet volumes over the last 3 ma were simulated using the lln 2 d model the forcings were both insolation and co2 concentration different atmospheric co2 scenarios were used because of a lack of co2 reconstruction over this remote past with constant co2 concentrations the simulated ice volume does not show any gradual increase as recorded in the marine sediments moreover its spectrum changes according to the chosen value of co2 when co2 is fixed at 220 ppmv the simulated ice volume is dominated by the similar to 100 ka period if a pre industrial co2 concentration of 280 ppmv is used the simulation is dominated by the similar to 41 ka period by using a linearly decreasing co2 concentration going from 320 ppmv at 3 ma bp to 200 ppmv at present the simulated changes in the power spectrum are in agreement with those obtained from the sedimentary records roughly before 1 ma bp the dominating period is similar to 41 ka afterwards the similar to 100 ka period becomes dominant this transition is accompanied by a gradual increase of the ice volume potential mechanisms for this transition are discussed using cyclic co2 fluctuations over the last 0 6 ma does not change significantly the spectral characteristics of the simulated ice volume but amplifies the amplitude of its variations c 1998 elsevier science ltd all rights reserved

sea surface temperature differences between the western equatorial pacific and northern south china sea since the pliocene and their paleoclimatic implications 1 alkenone sea surface temperatures ssts in the northern south china sea scs were reconstructed for the last 3 8 ma the sst difference between the western equatorial pacific and northern scs was then estimated showing a general increase since 2 8 ma three features of the sst gradient evolution were prominent 1 low values 2 c in the late pliocene 2 increased values during the late pliocene early pleistocene from 1 to 4 c and 3 high values 4 c by the end of the early pleistocene these features were also shown in zonal sst gradient across equatorial pacific implying an intimate relationship of the meridional hadley and east asian monsoon circulations with the zonal walker circulation moreover the sst gradient records displayed some characters unique to the equatorial pacific and not found in benthic 18o record suggesting that zonal tropical climate change could spread into higher latitude by interactions with meridional circulations

magnetostratigraphic and archaeological records at the early pleistocene site complex of madigou nihewan basin implications for human adaptations in north china abstract the nihewan basin in north china contains the densest concentration of early pleistocene paleolithic sites outside africa this paper introduces a new archaeological site complex at madigou mdg that was systematically excavated from 2011 to 2014 in the northeastern part of the nihewan basin the site contains fossils and well preserved stone artefacts in fluvio lacustrine sediments our magnetostratigraphic results situate the mdg sedimentary sequence in the early brunhes normal chron and the late matuyama reverse chron including the jaramillo normal subchron the mdg artifact layers are positioned within the pre jaramillo matuyama chron with an estimated age of ca 1 2 ma close to the onset of mid pleistocene climate transition the mdg core and flake technology includes bipolar flaking of siliceous dolomite cobbles and freehand flaking of chert and brecciated chert block fragments mammalian fauna and pollen compositions indicate that the mdg hominins lived in an open habitat varying from lightly wooded grassland to an ecosystem dominated by sparse steppe near the shore of the nihewan paleolake our combined results in the fields of archaeology paleontology palynology and magnetochronology suggest that innovations in technological behavior may correlate with adaptations to high environmental variability during the start of mid pleistocene climate transition

high latitude influence on the eastern equatorial pacific climate in the early pleistocene epoch many records of tropical sea surface temperature and marine productivity exhibit cycles of 23 kyr orbital precession and 100 kyr during the past 0 5 myr refs 1 5 whereas high latitude sea surface temperature records display much more pronounced obliquity cycles at a period of about 41 kyr ref 6 little is known however about tropical climate variability before the mid pleistocene transition about 900 kyr ago which marks the change from a climate dominated by 41 kyr cycles7 when ice age cycles and high latitude sea surface temperature variations were dictated by changes in the earth s obliquity8 9 to the more recent 100 kyr cycles of ice ages here we analyse alkenones from marine sediments in the eastern equatorial pacific ocean to reconstruct sea surface temperatures and marine productivity over the past 1 8 myr we find that both records are dominated by the 41 kyr obliquity cycles between 1 8 and 1 2 myr ago with a relatively small contribution from orbital precession and that early pleistocene sea surface temperatures varied in the opposite sense to local annual insolation in the eastern equatorial pacific ocean we conclude that during the early pleistocene epoch climate variability at our study site must have been determined by high latitude processes that were driven by orbital obliquity forcing

the mid pleistocene climate transition onset of 100 ka cycle lags ice volume build up by 280 ka the mid pleistocene climate transition mpt is the complex climatic change which brought the late pleistocene ice ages we explore the mpt in the time and frequency domains by new methods of time series analysis high resolution oxygen isotope records reveal that the ice volume related increase in 18o mean amplitude 0 29 0 05 1 transition midpoint 922 12 ka duration 40 9 ka significantly preceded the abrupt increase in the amplitude of the 100 ka cycle at 641 9 ka this finding can be quantitatively simulated using a simple ice bedrock model in which due to the additional ice the calving threshold is exceeded the simulated calving events prior to 650 ka are separated by 77 ka whereas after 650 ka they occur pseudo periodically with a mean period of nearly 100 ka the cause for the delay of the 100 ka calving cycle was not a slow bedrock relaxation rather the coincidental combination of insolation existing ice mass and bedrock depression