The paleoclimatic history of a region can be viewed as a series of surface temperature and moisture anomalies through time. The e!ects of changes in large-scale climatic controls (e.g., insolation, major circulation controls) can be mediated by the in#uence of smaller-scale controls (e.g., topographic barriers, coastlines); this may result in heterogenous surface climatic responses at the regio...

[1] We examine the response of summer precipitation to mid-Holocene insolation forcing and insolation-induced changes in sea surface temperature. Using a high-resolution nested climate modeling system, we find that mid-Holocene insolation forcing results in drier-than-present conditions over the central continental United States (U.S.) and northern Rocky Mountains, as well as wetter-than-presen...

Pollen analysis of a high altitude bog (Winterton Bog) and an alluvial soil sequence in the upper Awatere catchment on the western flanks of the Inland Kaikoura Range, and radiocarbon dates on wood and charcoal from the Marlborough region, have established a Holocene (post 10 000 years B.P.) vegetation history for this area. The upper slopes of the catchment were almost entirely clad in Podocar...

The Indo-Pacific warm pool (IPWP), East Pacific cold tongue, and deep overturning atmospheric Hadley (meridional) and Walker (zonal) circulations form a tightly coupled system. In this chapter, we explore the concept of the Hadley circulation as the fundamental driver of changes in this system, and examine its possible impact on global climates of the past. Recent modeling studies indicate that...

Using thermometer-based air temperature records for the period 1850–2010, we present empirical evidence for a direct relationship between total solar irradiance (TSI) and the Equator-to-Pole (Arctic) surface temperature gradient (EPTG). Modulation of the EPTG by TSI is also shown to exist, in variable ways, for each of the four seasons. Interpretation of the positive relationship between the TS...

Understanding how past climate changes affected biodiversity is a key issue in contemporary ecology and conservation biology. These diversity changes are, however, difficult to reconstruct from paleoecological sources alone, because macrofossil and pollen records do not provide complete information about species assemblages. Ecologists therefore use information from modern analogues of past com...

the house mouse (mus musculus) is a polytypic species, with its geographic distribution largely the result of human migrations during the late glacial and holocene. this study used geometric morphometry (gm) on upper and lower molars to discriminate among the three subspecies of the house mouse present in iran. moreover cranial remains of this species were uncovered on several archaeological si...