Article
Geosciences, Multidisciplinary
Julia C. Tindall, Alan M. Haywood, Ulrich Salzmann, Aisling M. Dolan, Tamara Fletcher
Summary: Reconciling palaeodata with model simulations of the Pliocene climate is crucial for understanding the climate conditions during that time. However, there is a discrepancy between model simulations and terrestrial data, particularly in the coldest months, which is referred to as the warm winter paradox. This paradox may be attributed to factors such as model uncertainty, weak constraint of proxy data by winter temperatures, uncertainties in data reconstruction methods, and the unique nature of the Pliocene northern high-latitude climate. The study suggests that focusing on comparing summer temperatures may provide more meaningful and accurate results.
CLIMATE OF THE PAST
(2022)
Article
Geography, Physical
Juha Saarinen, Otto Oksanen, Indre Zliobaite, Mikael Fortelius, Daniel DeMiguel, Beatriz Azanza, Herve Bocherens, Carmen Luzon, Jose Solano-Garcia, Jose Yravedra, Lloyd A. Courtenay, Hugues-Alexandre Blain, Christian Sanchez-Bandera, Alexia Serrano-Ramos, Juan Jose Rodriguez-Alba, Suvi Viranta, Deborah Barsky, Miikka Tallavaara, Oriol Oms, Jordi Agusti, Juan Ochando, Jose S. Carrion, Juan Manuel Jimenez-Arenas
Summary: By analyzing dental ecometrics of early and middle Pleistocene human sites as well as large herbivorous mammals, it was found that early Pleistocene humans tended to occupy diverse habitats like woodlands and savannas, while middle Pleistocene humans adapted to a wider range of environments but showed a preference for wooded paleoenvironments.
QUATERNARY SCIENCE REVIEWS
(2021)
Article
Geography, Physical
Nadja Zupan Hajna, Andrej Mihevc, Pavel Bosak, Petr Pruner, Helena Hercman, Ivan Horacek, Jan Wagner, Stanislav Cermak, Jacek Pawlak, Paula Sierpien, Simon Kdyr, Lucie Jurickova, Astrid Svara
Summary: The sedimentological record in the Raciska pecina cave is well-preserved and provides valuable data on paleoenvironmental changes over the past 3.4 million years. Despite hiatuses in sedimentation typical for cave records, the study has significantly enhanced our understanding of long-lasting deposition characteristics and environmental changes in the caves. The detailed chronology created based on magnetostratigraphy and isotopic oxygen stratigraphy has correlated with various dating techniques to provide a comprehensive picture of the environmental evolution in the region.
QUATERNARY INTERNATIONAL
(2021)
Article
Geosciences, Multidisciplinary
Debo Zhao, Shiming Wan, Lina Zhai, Xuefa Shi, Anchun Li
Summary: The oxygen content in the deep ocean plays a crucial role in biogeochemical processes and has significant impacts on the global carbon cycle. This study presents paleo-redox records from the Japan Sea, showing remarkable changes in the redox history and highlighting the influences of tectonic and climatic changes over the past 4 million years.
PALEOCEANOGRAPHY AND PALEOCLIMATOLOGY
(2022)
Article
Geosciences, Multidisciplinary
Ellen Berntell, Qiong Zhang, Qiang Li, Alan M. Haywood, Julia C. Tindall, Stephen J. Hunter, Zhongshi Zhang, Xiangyu Li, Chuncheng Guo, Kerim H. Nisancioglu, Christian Stepanek, Gerrit Lohmann, Linda E. Sohl, Mark A. Chandler, Ning Tan, Camille Contoux, Gilles Ramstein, Michiel L. J. Baatsen, Anna S. von der Heydt, Deepak Chandan, William Richard Peltier, Ayako Abe-Ouchi, Wing-Le Chan, Youichi Kamae, Charles J. R. Williams, Daniel J. Lunt, Ran Feng, Bette L. Otto-Bliesner, Esther C. Brady
Summary: The mid-Pliocene warm period was a time characterized by warm climate state with higher surface temperatures in West Africa and a strengthened West African Monsoon, resulting in increased summer rainfall over West Africa and the Sahara region but decreased rainfall over the equatorial Atlantic. Models also indicate a warming Sahara and deepening Saharan Heat Low, leading to a strengthening of the WAM and increased monsoonal flow into the continent.
CLIMATE OF THE PAST
(2021)
Article
Anthropology
Esteban E. Sarmiento, Martin Pickford
Summary: In this article, the authors propose a new human species to replace a poorly defined one. They claim that this new species will better describe human variation and evolution in the middle Pleistocene. However, they fail to account for some European fossils and provide no evidence to support their new species.
EVOLUTIONARY ANTHROPOLOGY
(2022)
Article
Geosciences, Multidisciplinary
Xinying Zhou, Jilong Yang, Guoqiao Xiao, Jian Wang, Yunzhuang Hu, Yan Zheng, Junchi Liu, Xiaoqiang Li
Summary: This study examines the vegetation evolution in the North China Plain over the past 3 million years. The findings demonstrate the occurrence of multiple cool and dry intervals, which were closely related to Earth's orbital eccentricity and likely influenced by the global ocean carbon reservoir. Additionally, a shift in vegetation occurred around 1.2 million years ago, leading to the aridification of the Asian interior.
Article
Geosciences, Multidisciplinary
Peter R. Brennan, Tripti Bhattacharya, Ran Feng, Jessica E. Tierney, Ellen Jorgensen
Summary: Ocean-atmosphere dynamics in the north Pacific have a significant impact on the global climate system and the hydroclimate in western North America. This study investigates the changes in regional climate dynamics under increased atmospheric greenhouse gas concentrations using alkenone-based records and climate model simulations. The results show that different climate models have varying performance in different regions, and the prescribed land surface changes and higher CO2 levels have a strong influence on the coastal warming patterns along the California Margin. Differences in radiation and circulation between the models may play a key role in capturing the regional temperature patterns during the Pliocene.
PALEOCEANOGRAPHY AND PALEOCLIMATOLOGY
(2022)
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Madison G. Shankle, Natalie J. Burls, Alexey V. Fedorov, Matthew D. Thomas, Wei Liu, Donald E. Penman, Heather L. Ford, Peter H. Jacobs, Noah J. Planavsky, Pincelli M. Hull
Summary: Recent studies have shown that in the early Pliocene/late Miocene period, the circulation regime in the equatorial Pacific was significantly different from modern times, leading to the influx of older, more acidic, and more nutrient-rich water into the region, resulting in enhanced productivity in the east Pacific despite weaker wind-driven upwelling.
Article
Geosciences, Multidisciplinary
Peter Fischer, Olaf Joeris, Kathryn E. Fitzsimmons, Mathias Vinnepand, Charlotte Prud'homme, Philipp Schulte, Christine Hatte, Ulrich Hambach, Susanne Lindauer, Christian Zeeden, Zoran Peric, Frank Lehmkuhl, Tina Wunderlich, Dennis Wilken, Wolfgang Schirmer, Andreas Voett
Summary: Loess-Palaeosol-Sequences (LPS) in the Central European region provide valuable terrestrial archives of past climate and environment. This study focuses on the Schwalbenberg LPS, offering a comprehensive multiproxy dataset for understanding its formation processes and relationship to climatic influences during the Upper Pleistocene. By utilizing a transect approach and integrating sedimentological and geochemical proxy data, the researchers were able to quantify different formation phases and establish robust correlations with other climate archives, highlighting the sensitivity of western European LPS to Atlantic-driven climate oscillations.
Article
Biology
Wu Liu, Sheela Athreya, Song Xing, Xiujie Wu
Summary: Historical views of Asia as an evolutionary 'backwater' have been challenged by recent discoveries of well-dated Middle Pleistocene hominin fossils in China. The study of these fossils suggests a critical morphological change around 300 ka, which may be linked to climatic instability.
PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY B-BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES
(2022)
Article
Geology
Pablo Rodriguez-Salgado, Oriol Oms, Jordi Ibanez-Insa, Pere Anadon, Bruno Gomez de Soler, Gerard Campeny, Jordi Agusti
Summary: The sedimentary record of Camp dels Ninots reflects mineralogical shifts that correlate with orbitally forced climate changes. Intervals with allogenic minerals correspond to wet periods, while those with carbonates correlate with dry periods. This cyclicity is attributed to variations in rainfall leading to different lake conditions.
SEDIMENTARY GEOLOGY
(2021)
Article
Geography, Physical
Antigone Uzunidis, Pierre-Olivier Antoine, Jean-Philip Brugal
Summary: The evolutionary history of rhinoceroses, particularly the genus Coelodonta, spanning from the Late Pliocene to the latest Pleistocene, has been developed through morpho-anatomical and molecular-based phylogenetic analyses. This study focuses on the phylogeny of Coelodonta from the Middle Pleistocene Les Rameaux locality in SW France, providing a comprehensive phylogeny and biogeographical history for the genus.
QUATERNARY SCIENCE REVIEWS
(2022)
Article
Geography, Physical
Florian Schwarz, Ulrich Salzmann, Feng Cheng, Jian Ni, Junsheng Nie, Megan R. Patchett, Xiangzhong Li, Lin Li, John Woodward, Carmala Garzione
Summary: This study presents a 3.5-million-year-long record of vegetation and climate from the Kunlun Pass Basin on the Tibetan Plateau. The results show the transition from a warm, high carbon dioxide environment in the Early Pliocene to the cool glacial and interglacial periods of the Pleistocene, indicating amplified warming and permafrost conditions after 2.7 Ma.
GLOBAL AND PLANETARY CHANGE
(2023)
Article
Geosciences, Multidisciplinary
Yuxin He, Huanye Wang
Summary: Through biomarkers and bulk organic carbon isotope analysis, a 5-million-year history of terrestrial material input to the northwest shelf of Australia was reconstructed. The study revealed a continuous decrease in vegetational organic input and an increase in soil input from the early Pliocene to the late Pleistocene, influenced by factors such as lowered sea level and drier climates.
GEOPHYSICAL RESEARCH LETTERS
(2021)
