Semiarid Mediterranean mountains are in general very sensitive to global climate warming in terms of deglaciation and permafrost degradation. In the context of the PACE-Project (Permafrost and Climate in Europe) the aim of the undertaken research is to gain a better understanding of late Pleistocene and Holocene glacial and periglacial history of Sierra Nevada, the southernmost European range w...

Abstract The response of glaciers and ice caps to past climate change provides important insight into how they will react ongoing future global warming. In Svalbard, the Holocene glacial history has been studied for many cirque valley glaciers. However, little is known about larger in Svalbard responded Late Glacial changes. Here we use lake sediment cores geophysical data from Femmilsjoen, one...

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t At martian mid-to-high latitudes, the surfaces of potentially ice-rich features, including concentric crater fill, lobate debris aprons, and lineated valley fill, typically display a complex texture known as " brain terrain, " due to its resemblance to the complex patterns on brain surfaces. In order to determine the structure and developmental history of c...

Atmospheric dust loadings play a crucial role in the global climate system. Southern South America is a key dust source, however, dust deposition rates remain poorly quantified since the last glacial termination (~17 kyr ago), an important timeframe to anticipate future climate changes. Here we use isotope and element geochemistry in a peat archive from Tierra del Fuego, to reconstruct atmosphe...

The development of paraglacial fans, studied in the upper Bhagirathi valley, Garhwal Himalaya, northern India, relates to the retreat of the Gangotri Glacier over the last 200 years. These fans demonstrate the speed by which mass movement and fluvial processes may lead to the modification and readjustment of the Himalayan landscapes during deglaciation. The paraglacial fans in this region grew ...

The discovery over the past two decades of viable microbial communities within glaciers has promoted interest in the role of glaciers and ice sheets (the cryosphere) as contributors to subglacial erosion, global biodiversity, and in regulating global biogeochemical cycles. In situ or in-field detection and characterisation of microbial communities is becoming recognised as an important approach...

Widespread species- and genus-level extinctions of mammals in North America and Europe occurred during the last deglaciation [16,000-9,000 yr B.P. (by (14)C)], a period of rapid and often abrupt climatic and vegetational change. These extinctions are variously ascribed to environmental change and overkill by human hunters. By contrast, plant extinctions since the Middle Pleistocene are undocume...

Mesic southeastern Australia represents the continent's ancestral biome and is highly biodiverse, yet its phylogeographic history remains poorly understood. Here, we examine mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) control region and microsatellite diversity in the brush-tailed rock-wallaby (Petrogale penicillata;n = 279 from 31 sites), to assess historic evolutionary and biogeographic processes in southeaste...

Red clayey paleosols that are chiefly the product of aerosolic dust deposition are interbedded in the Quaternary carbonate formations of the Bermuda oceanic island system. These paleosols provide a basis for reconstructing Quaternary atmospheric circulation patterns in the northwestern Atlantic. Geochemical analyses were performed on representative paleosol samples to identify their parent dust...

The Himalaya and adjacent Tibetan Plateau are the source of several major Asian rivers supporting a large, diverse ecosystem and a population of more than 1 billion people [Ives and Messerli, 1989; Barnett et al., 2005]. Large rivers such as the Indus, Sutlej, Ganges, Arun, and Brahmaputra/Tsangpo draining the southern Tibetan Plateau and the Himalaya are essential for agriculture and energy ge...