Palaeoclimate articles within Nature

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  • Letter |

    A 1.3-million-year-long climate history from the Lake Malawi basin in eastern Africa displays a trend towards progressively wetter conditions superimposed on strong 100,000-year eccentricity cycles of temperature and rainfall since the Mid-Pleistocene Transition around 900,000 years ago.

    • T. C. Johnson
    • , J. P. Werne
    •  & J. S. Sinninghe Damsté

  • Article |

    Records of the Asian monsoon have been extended to 640,000 years ago, and confirm both that the 100,000-year ice age cycle results from integral numbers of precessional cycles and that insolation influences the pacing of major millennial-scale climate events.

    • Hai Cheng
    • , R. Lawrence Edwards
    •  & Haiwei Zhang

  • Review Article |

    Palaeoclimatic evidence of monsoon rainfall dynamics across different regions and timescales suggests that monsoon systems exhibit substantial regional variation; meridional temperature gradients are a major driver of monsoon variability, but these gradients are influenced by other, interacting forcing mechanisms, making predictions of future changes in monsoon rainfall highly uncertain.

    • Mahyar Mohtadi
    • , Matthias Prange
    •  & Stephan Steinke

  • Letter |

    Evidence in support of low atmospheric oxygen concentrations on early Earth relates to the composition of the lower Archaean atmosphere; now the composition of fossil micrometeorites preserved in 2.7-billion-year-old rocks in Australia suggests that they were oxidized in an oxygen-rich Archaean upper atmosphere.

    • Andrew G. Tomkins
    • , Lara Bowlt
    •  & Jeremy L. Wykes

  • Letter |

    A very large set of proxy data is used to reconstruct Northern Hemisphere hydroclimate variability over the past twelve centuries, to benchmark climate model simulations of hydroclimate; the twentieth-century intensification of hydroclimate extremes seen in the model simulations is not supported by the proxy reconstruction.

    • Fredrik Charpentier Ljungqvist
    • , Paul J. Krusic
    •  & David Frank

  • Letter |

    Reconstruction of the activity of ice streams operating during the retreat of the Laurentide Ice Sheet reveals that the number of ice streams and their total discharge decreased as the total volume of the ice sheet decreased, suggesting that ice stream activity did not accelerate the collapse of the ice sheet.

    • C. R. Stokes
    • , M. Margold
    •  & L. Tarasov

  • Letter |

    A critical functional relationship between boreal summer insolation and global carbon dioxide concentration is proposed and tested with simulations; it accounts for the beginning of the past eight glacial cycles and predicts that the next one is unusually far off, even without the effect of anthropogenic emissions.

    • A. Ganopolski
    • , R. Winkelmann
    •  & H. J. Schellnhuber

  • Brief Communications Arising |

    • Kyoung-nam Jo
    • , Kyung Sik Woo
    •  & R. Lawrence Edwards

  • Article |

    Ice-core and tree-ring data show that large volcanic eruptions in the tropics and high latitudes were primary drivers of temperature variability in the Northern Hemisphere during the past 2,500 years, firmly implicating such eruptions as catalysts in major sixth-century pandemics, famines, and socioeconomic disruptions.

    • M. Sigl
    • , M. Winstrup
    •  & T. E. Woodruff

  • Letter |

    The North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) is an important source of climate variability in the Northern Hemisphere; here, a model-tested reconstruction of the NAO for the past millennium reveals that positive NAO phases were predominant during the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, but not during the whole medieval period.

    • Pablo Ortega
    • , Flavio Lehner
    •  & Pascal Yiou

  • Letter |

    A synthesis of new and existing data allows Heinrich Stadial 11 (HS11), a prominent Northern Hemisphere cold event, to be linked to the timing of peak sea-level rise during glacial termination T-II, whereas rapid sea-level rise in T-I is shown to clearly post-date Heinrich Stadial 1, so fundamentally different mechanisms seem to be at work during glacial terminations.

    • G. Marino
    • , E. J. Rohling
    •  & J. Yu

  • Letter |

    A delay between surface cooling and the arrival of ice-rafted debris at a site southwest of Iceland over the past four glacial cycles implies that icebergs typically arrived too late to have triggered cooling, although the freshwater derived from melting icebergs may provide a positive feedback for cold stadial conditions.

    • Stephen Barker
    • , James Chen
    •  & David Thornalley

  • Letter |

    A new ice core from West Antarctica shows that, during the last ice age, abrupt Northern Hemisphere climate variations were followed two centuries later by a response in Antarctica, suggesting an oceanic propagation of the climate signal to the Southern Hemisphere high latitudes.

    • Christo Buizert
    • , Betty Adrian
    •  & Thomas E. Woodruff

  • Letter |

    The boron isotope pH proxy in sediment-core planktic foraminifera is used as a tracer of oceanic CO2 outgassing to show that surface waters which derive partly from deep water upwelled in the Southern Ocean became a significant source of carbon to the atmosphere during the last deglaciation.

    • M. A. Martínez-Botí
    • , G. Marino
    •  & D. Vance

  • Article |

    A new record of Pliocene carbon dioxide variations derived from boron isotopes shows that climate sensitivity (the change in global mean temperature in response to radiative forcing) during the Plio-Pleistocene does not vary when cycles in continental ice are taken into account; this suggests that current estimates can be used to predict future climate.

    • M. A. Martínez-Botí
    • , G. L. Foster
    •  & D. N. Schmidt

  • Letter |

    Analysis of air trapped in Antarctic ice between 16,000 and 10,000 years before present yields nitrous oxide concentrations and isotopic data showing that the relative contributions from marine and terrestrial sources to nitrous oxide emission changes were equal during that period, but that terrestrial emissions dominated on centennial timescales.

    • Adrian Schilt
    • , Edward J. Brook
    •  & Thomas F. Stocker

  • Letter |

    A simulation of the evolution of El Niño Southern Oscillation in the past 21,000 years in a state-of-the-art climate model shows the complex response mechanisms of El Niño to external climate forcings and poses further challenges to our understanding and projection of El Niño in the future.

    • Zhengyu Liu
    • , Zhengyao Lu
    •  & K. M. Cobb

  • Letter |

    Carbon dioxide and methane records from a West Antarctic ice core show that although gradual variations in the concentration of atmospheric carbon dioxide during the last glacial termination are linked to changes in Antarctic temperature, the concentration underwent three abrupt, centennial-scale changes related to sudden climate changes in the Northern Hemisphere.

    • Shaun A. Marcott
    • , Thomas K. Bauska
    •  & Edward J. Brook

  • Article |

    Asian monsoons were strongly active 40 million years ago and were enhanced by high atmospheric CO2 content. They were significantly weakened when CO2 levels decreased 34 million years ago and then reinitiated several million years later.

    • A. Licht
    • , M. van Cappelle
    •  & J.-J. Jaeger

  • Review Article |

    The intertropical convergence zone, where global rainfall is greatest, is a narrow belt of clouds usually centred about six degrees north of the Equator; this Review links its migrations on various timescales to the atmospheric energy balance.

    • Tapio Schneider
    • , Tobias Bischoff
    •  & Gerald H. Haug

  • Letter |

    A moraine chronology determined by surface exposure dating shows that glaciers in the northern tropical Andes expanded to a larger extent during the Antarctic cold reversal (14,500 to 12,900 years ago) than during the Younger Dryas stadial (12,800 to 11,500 years ago), contrary to previous studies; as a result, previous chronologies and climate interpretations from tropical glaciers may need to be revisited.

    • V. Jomelli
    • , V. Favier
    •  & B. L. Otto-Bliesner

  • Letter |

    Analysis of radiocarbon and uranium-series dates and clumped isotope temperature estimates from water column profiles of fossil deep-sea corals in the North Atlantic shows that the release of heat from warm waters in the deep North Atlantic Ocean probably triggered the Bølling–Allerød warming and reinvigoration of the Atlantic meridional overturning circulation 14,700 years ago.

    • Nivedita Thiagarajan
    • , Adam V. Subhas
    •  & Jess F. Adkins

  • Letter |

    The isotopic composition of glacial sediment discharged into the ocean from south Greenland is used to identify a major reduction in the amount of that sediment derived from erosion of Greenland’s Precambrian bedrock, probably indicating the cessation of subglacial erosion and sediment transport during Marine Isotope Stage 11 as a result of the almost complete deglaciation of south Greenland.

    • Alberto V. Reyes
    • , Anders E. Carlson
    •  & David J. Ullman

  • Letter |

    New sea surface temperature and oxygen isotope records, combined with climate modelling experiments, show that slowdowns of the Atlantic meridional overturning circulation during Heinrich stadials and the Younger Dryas stadial affected the tropical Indian Ocean hydroclimate through changes to the Hadley circulation.

    • Mahyar Mohtadi
    • , Matthias Prange
    •  & Andreas Lückge

  • Article |

    A novel approach to the estimation of sea level and deep-sea temperature has been used to determine these quantities over the past 5.3 million years; this approach, based on oxygen isotope records from the eastern Mediterranean, shows that temperature and sea-level histories are broadly correlated but also show intriguing temporal offsets.

    • E. J. Rohling
    • , G. L. Foster
    •  & F. Williams

  • Letter |

    Tropical and subtropical speleothems show that the latitudinal migration of the Intertropical Convergence Zone tends to produce increased precipitation in one hemisphere and drying in the other; now it is shown using speleothems from the Korean peninsula that this phenomenon extended to the mid-latitudes during the past 550,000 years.

    • Kyoung-nam Jo
    • , Kyung Sik Woo
    •  & R. Lawrence Edwards

  • Review Article |

    How atmospheric oxygen concentrations evolved from only small amounts for the early Earth to about 21 per cent today remains uncertain; here our latest understanding of the evolution of Earth’s oxygen levels is discussed.

    • Timothy W. Lyons
    • , Christopher T. Reinhard
    •  & Noah J. Planavsky

  • Letter |

    A tropical cyclone activity index that allows for a direct comparison between the modern instrumental record and long-term palaeotempest (prehistoric tropical cyclone) records shows that present low levels of storm activity on the mid west and northeast coasts of Australia are unprecedented over the past 550 to 1,500 years.

    • Jordahna Haig
    • , Jonathan Nott
    •  & Gert-Jan Reichart

  • Letter |

    To establish what effect the Late Cenozoic cooling climate shift might have had on global erosion, inverse modelling of thermochronometric ages is used to show that erosion rates are increased by cooling, especially in glaciated mountain ranges.

    • Frédéric Herman
    • , Diane Seward
    •  & Todd A. Ehlers

  • Letter |

    Four reconstructions of North American ice-sheet history are tested using oxygen isotope records from the Gulf of Mexico in a water-mixing model; the one based on ice physics is the best match to the isotopic data and to the observed Last Glacial Maximum fall in sea level due to melting of the Laurentide ice sheet.

    • Andrew D. Wickert
    • , Jerry X. Mitrovica
    •  & Robert S. Anderson

  • Letter |

    Reconstructed changes in North Atlantic nitrogen fixation over the past 160,000 years have a 23,000-year cycle that is interpreted to result from precession-paced changes in the supply of phosphorus to surface waters by equatorial Atlantic upwelling.

    • Marietta Straub
    • , Daniel M. Sigman
    •  & Gerald H. Haug

  • Letter |

    An annually resolved ice-core record from West Antarctica indicates that warming driven by local insolation resulting from sea-ice decline began in that region about 2,000 years before warming in East Antarctica, reconciling two alternative explanations for deglacial warming in the Southern Hemisphere.

    • T. J. Fudge
    • , Eric J. Steig
    •  & Gifford J. Wong

  • Letter |

    Comprehensive climate and ice-sheet models show that insolation and internal feedbacks between the climate, the ice sheets and the lithosphere–asthenosphere system explain the 100,000-year period on which the Northern Hemisphere ice sheets grow and shrink.

    • Ayako Abe-Ouchi
    • , Fuyuki Saito
    •  & Heinz Blatter

  • Article |

    A synthesis of geochemical proxy records of sea surface temperature shows that the early Pliocene climate was little different from today in terms of maximum ocean temperatures but had substantially lower meridional and zonal temperature gradients.

    • A. V. Fedorov
    • , C. M. Brierley
    •  & A. C. Ravelo

  • Letter |

    Extensive glaciations, possibly even a globally ice-covered Snowball Earth, took place in the Neoproterozoic era, and here the possible ocean circulation at that time, under a kilometre of ice, is described.

    • Yosef Ashkenazy
    • , Hezi Gildor
    •  & Eli Tziperman

  • Letter |

    Model simulations show that in response to insolation changes only, southern westerlies and feedbacks between sea ice, temperature, evaporation and salinity caused vigorous Southern Ocean ventilation and cooler deep ocean during the interglacials before the mid-Brunhes transition, suggesting that this transition may in fact have resulted from a series of individual interglacial responses to various combinations of insolation conditions.

    • Qiuzhen Yin

  • Letter |

    Proxy indicators of relative moisture balance, in combination with long control simulations from coupled climate models, show that the Indian Ocean drives multidecadal hydroclimate variability by altering the local Walker circulation, whereas the influence of the Pacific Ocean is minimal on these timescales.

    • Jessica E. Tierney
    • , Jason E. Smerdon
    •  & Richard Seager

  • Perspective |

    Considerable confusion exists as to the most likely value of climate sensitivity; by proposing a consistent framework for analysing and synthesizing research into the palaeoclimate of the past 65 million years, a value of 2.2–4.8 °C warming in response to atmospheric CO2 doubling is obtained, in agreement with IPCC estimates.

    • E. J. Rohling
    • , E. J. Rohling
    •  & R. E. Zeebe

  • News & Views |

    A new assessment of drought trends over the past 60 years finds little evidence of an expansion of the area affected by droughts, contradicting several previous estimates. See Letter p.435

    • Sonia I. Seneviratne

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