Rapid topographic growth of the Taiwan orogen since ~1.3-1.5 Ma.

We present the first paleotopographic reconstruction of Taiwan by measuring the hydrogen isotope composition of leaf waxes (δH) preserved in 3-Ma and younger sediments of the southern Coastal Range. Plant leaf waxes record the δH of precipitation during formation, which is related to elevation. Leaf waxes produced across the orogen are transported and deposited in adjacent sedimentary basins, providing deep-time records of the source elevation of detrital organic matter.

Accelerated mass extinction in an isolated biota during Late Devonian climate changes.

The fossil record can illuminate factors that contribute to extinction risk during times of global environmental disturbance; for example, inferred thermal tolerance was an important predictor of extinction during several mass extinctions that corresponded with climate change. Additionally, members of geographically isolated biotas may face higher risk because they have less opportunity to migrate to suitable climate refugia during environmental disturbances. Here, we investigate how different types of risk intersect in the well-preserved brachiopod fauna of the Appalachian Foreland Basin during the two pulses of the Frasnian-Famennian mass extinction (Late Devonian, ~ 372 Ma).

Short-term occupations at high elevation during the Middle Paleolithic at Kalavan 2 (Republic of Armenia).

The Armenian highlands encompasses rugged and environmentally diverse landscapes and is characterized by a mosaic of distinct ecological niches and large temperature gradients. Strong seasonal fluctuations in resource availability along topographic gradients likely prompted Pleistocene hominin groups to adapt by adjusting their mobility strategies. However, the role that elevated landscapes played in hunter-gatherer settlement systems during the Late Pleistocene (Middle Palaeolithic [MP]) remains poorly understood.

Carboniferous plant physiology breaks the mold.

How plants have shaped Earth surface feedbacks over geologic time is a key question in botanical and geological inquiry. Recent work has suggested that biomes during the Carboniferous Period contained plants with extraordinary physiological capacity to shape their environment, contradicting the previously dominant view that plants only began to actively moderate the Earth's surface with the rise of angiosperms during the Mesozoic Era. A recently published Viewpoint disputes this recent work, thus here, we document in detail, the mechanistic underpinnings of our modeling and illustrate the extraordinary ecophysiological nature of Carboniferous plants.

Geochemical Evidence for the Control of Fire by Middle Palaeolithic Hominins.

The use of fire played an important role in the social and technological development of the genus Homo. Most archaeologists agree that this was a multi-stage process, beginning with the exploitation of natural fires and ending with the ability to create fire from scratch. Some have argued that in the Middle Palaeolithic (MP) hominin fire use was limited by the availability of fire in the landscape.

Reconstructing vapor pressure deficit from leaf wax lipid molecular distributions.

Estimates of atmospheric moisture are critical for understanding the links and feedbacks between atmospheric CO and global climate. At present, there are few quantitative moisture proxies that are applicable to deep time. We present a new proxy for atmospheric moisture derived from modern climate and leaf biomarker data from North and Central America.

Dynamic Carboniferous tropical forests: new views of plant function and potential for physiological forcing of climate.

Contents 1333 I. 1334 II. 1335 III.

Terrestrial cooling in Northern Europe during the eocene-oligocene transition.

Geochemical and modeling studies suggest that the transition from the "greenhouse" state of the Late Eocene to the "icehouse" conditions of the Oligocene 34-33.5 Ma was triggered by a reduction of atmospheric pCO2 that enabled the rapid buildup of a permanent ice sheet on the Antarctic continent. Marine records show that the drop in pCO2 during this interval was accompanied by a significant decline in high-latitude sea surface and deep ocean temperature and enhanced seasonality in middle and high latitudes.

Re-Os isotopic evidence for long-lived heterogeneity and equilibration processes in the Earth's upper mantle.

The geochemical composition of the Earth's upper mantle is thought to reflect 4.5 billion years of melt extraction, as well as the recycling of crustal materials. The fractionation of rhenium and osmium during partial melting in the upper mantle makes the Re-Os isotopic system well suited for tracing the extraction of melt and recycling of the resulting mid-ocean-ridge basalt.