The thermal conductivity κ and heat capacity per unit volume ρCp of triphenyl phosphite (TPP) were measured under different pressure and temperature conditions, and with time during the sluggish liquid to glacial state transformation at temperatures about 15 K above the glass transition temperature. As the transformation slowly proceeds during several hours, ρCp decreases monotonically from tha...

In climate models, many parameters used to resolve subgrid scale processes can be adjusted through a tuning exercise to fit the model’s output to target climatologies. We present an objective tuning of a low resolution Atmosphere–Ocean General Circulation Model (GCM) called FAMOUS where ten model parameters are varied together using a Latin hypercube sampling method to create an ensemble of 100...

Glacial retreat creates new habitat which is colonized and developed by plants and animals during the process of primary succession. While there has been much debate about the relative role of deterministic and stochastic processes during terrestrial succession, evidence from freshwater ecosystems remains minimal and a general consensus is lacking. Using a unique 27 years record of community as...

The SW Indian Ocean contains at least four layers of water masses with different sources: deep Antarctic (Lower Circumpolar Deep Water) flow to the north, midwater North Indian Deep Water flow to the south and Upper Circumpolar Deep Water to the north, meridional convergence of intermediate waters at 500-1500 m, and the shallow South Equatorial Current flowing west. Sedimentation rates in the a...

Climate change is thought to have major effects on groundwater resources. There is however a limited knowledge of the impacts of past climate changes such as warm or glacial periods on groundwater although marine or glacial fluids may have circulated in basements during these periods. Geochemical investigations of groundwater at shallow depth (80-400 m) in the Armorican basement (western France...

A new version of the Earth system model of intermediate complexity, CLIMBER-2, which includes the three-dimensional polythermal ice-sheet model SICOPOLIS, is used to simulate the last glacial cycle forced by variations of the Earth’s orbital parameters and atmospheric concentration of major greenhouse gases. The climate and icesheet components of the model are coupled bi-directionally through a...

Earth's climate has undergone dramatic shifts between glacial and interglacial time periods, with high-latitude temperature changes on the order of 5-10 °C. These climatic shifts have been associated with major rearrangements in the deep ocean circulation and stratification, which have likely played an important role in the observed atmospheric carbon dioxide swings by affecting the partitionin...

Radiocarbon-dated sediment cores from seven lakes and two bogs spanning the Cordillera de Mérida in the Venezuelan Andes were used to identify and date the regional history of late Pleistocene and Holocene glacial activity. Coring sites were selected at different elevations across a pronounced rain shadow from southeast (wet) to northwest (dry). Sediment lithostratigraphy and magnetic susceptib...

[1] The glacial cycles of the Pleistocene involve changes in the circulation of the deep ocean in important ways. This review seeks to establish what were the robust patterns of deep-sea water mass changes and how they might have influenced important parts of the last glacial cycle. After a brief review of how tracers in the modern ocean can be used to understand the distribution of water masse...

Understanding abrupt climate changes requires detailed spatial/temporal records of such changes, and to make these records, we need rapidly responding, geographically widespread climate trackers. Glacial systems are such trackers, and recent additions to the stratigraphic record show overall synchronous response of glacial systems to climate change reflecting global atmosphere conditions.