High-resolution analyses of lake sediment from southwestern Alaska reveal cyclic variations in climate and ecosystems during the Holocene. These variations occurred with periodicities similar to those of solar activity and appear to be coherent with time series of the cosmogenic nuclides 14C and 10Be as well as North Atlantic drift ice. Our results imply that small variations in solar irradiance induced pronounced cyclic changes in northern high-latitude environments. They also provide evidence that centennial-scale shifts in the Holocene climate were similar between the subpolar regions of the North Atlantic and North Pacific, possibly because of Sun-ocean-climate linkages.
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http://dx.doi.org/10.1126/science.1088568 | DOI Listing |
Sci Total Environ
January 2025
Department of Geography, Royal Holloway University of London, Surrey, UK.
Future climate projections are expected to have a substantial impact on boreal lake circulation regimes. Understanding lake sensitivity to warmer climates is therefore critical for mitigating potential ecological and societal impacts. The Holocene Thermal Maximum (HTM; ca 7-5 ka BP) provides a valuable analogue to investigate lake responses to warmer climates devoid of major anthropogenic influences.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFSci Total Environ
January 2025
Institute of Plant Sciences, University of Bern, Bern, Switzerland; Oeschger Centre for Climate Change Research, University of Bern, Bern, Switzerland.
Abies alba Mill. is a prominent European tree species predominantly inhabiting cool and humid montane environments. However, paleoecological evidence reveals that during the Eemian and mid-Holocene, A.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFEcol Evol
January 2025
Alfred Wegener Institute, Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research, Polar Terrestrial Environmental Systems Potsdam Germany.
Mountains with complex terrain and steep environmental gradients are biodiversity hotspots such as the eastern Tibetan Plateau (TP). However, it is generally assumed that mountain terrain plays a secondary role in plant species assembly on a millennial time-scale compared to climate change. Here, we investigate plant richness and community changes during the last 18,000 years at two sites: Lake Naleng and Lake Ximen on the eastern TP with similar elevation and climatic conditions but contrasting terrain.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFProc Natl Acad Sci U S A
January 2025
Department of Environmental Sciences, Western Washington University, Bellingham, WA 98225.
Glob Chang Biol
January 2025
Geography and Environmental Science, University of Southampton, Southampton, UK.
The concepts of planetary boundaries are influential in the sustainability literature and assist in delineating the 'safe operating spaces' beyond which critical Earth system processes could collapse. Moving away from our current trajectory towards 'hothouse Earth' will require knowledge of how Earth systems have varied throughout the Holocene, and whether and how far we have deviated from past ranges of variability. Such information can inform decisions about where change could be resisted, accepted or where adaptation is inevitable.
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