et al. # a comprehensive database of paleoclimate records is needed to place recent warming into the longer-term context of natural climate variability. We present a global compilation of quality-controlled, published, temperature-sensitive proxy records extending back 12,000 years through the Holocene. Data were compiled from 679 sites where time series cover at least 4000 years, are resolved at sub-millennial scale (median spacing of 400 years or finer) and have at least one age control point every 3000 years, with cutoff values slackened in datasparse regions. The data derive from lake sediment (51%), marine sediment (31%), peat (11%), glacier ice (3%), and other natural archives. The database contains 1319 records, including 157 from the Southern Hemisphere. the multi-proxy database comprises paleotemperature time series based on ecological assemblages, as well as biophysical and geochemical indicators that reflect mean annual or seasonal temperatures, as encoded in the database. This database can be used to reconstruct the spatiotemporal evolution of Holocene temperature at global to regional scales, and is publicly available in Linked Paleo Data (LiPD) format.
The Uddelermeer is a unique lake for The Netherlands, containing a sediment record that continuously registered environmental and climatic change from the late Pleistocene on to the present. A 15.6-m-long sediment record was retrieved from the deepest part of the sedimentary basin and an age-depth model was developed using radiocarbon dating, 210 Pb dating, and Bayesian modeling. Lake-level change was reconstructed using a novel combination of high-resolution palaeoecological proxies (e.g. pollen, non-pollen palynomorphs, chironomids), quantitative determinations of lake-level change (ground-penetrating radar), and estimates of changes in precipitation (lipid biomarker stable isotopes). We conclude that lake levels were at least as high as present-day water levels from the late glacial to 3150 cal. yr BP, with the exception of at least one lake-level lowstand during the Preboreal period. Lake levels were ca. 2.5 m lower than at present between 3150 and 2800 cal. yr BP, which might have been the result of a change in moisture source region prior to the so-called 2.8-kyr event. Increasing precipitation amounts around 2800 cal. yr BP resulted in a lake-level rise of about 3.5-4 m to levels that were 1-1.5 m higher than at present, in line with increased precipitation levels as inferred for the 2.8-kyr event from nearby raised bog areas as well as with reconstructions of higher lake levels in the French Alps, all of which have been previously attributed to a phase of decreased solar activity. Lake levels decreased to their present level only during recent times, although the exact timing of the drop in lake levels is unclear.
In comparison with temperature reconstructions, New Zealand proxy records for paleo-precipitation are rare, despite the importance of precipitation in contemporary climate variability and for projected climate impacts. In this study, records of mid-late Holocene palaeomoisture variation were derived for two hydrologically separate ombrotrophic Restionaceae bogs in northern New Zealand, based on peat humification analysis. At each site, three cores were analysed for peat humification, facilitating both intra-and inter-site comparisons. Age models for the six sequences were developed using radiocarbon dating and tephrochronology. Twelve tephras (including six cryptotephras) were recognised, four of which were used to precisely link the two sites and to define start and end points for the records at 7027 ± 170 (Tuhua tephra) and 1718 ± 10 cal. yr BP (Taupo tephra) (2σ-age ranges), respectively.We find individual differences between the six peat humification records at short-term timescales that are presumably due to local site factors, in particular changing vegetation and microtopography, or to changes in the composition of the material analysed. Stronger longer-term coherence is observed between all six records but is attributed to slow anaerobic decay over time because the implied trend towards wetter 2 summers in the late Holocene cannot be corroborated by independent climate proxies. Despite these confounding factors, centennial scale shifts in bog surface wetness are a pervasive feature of all six records with varying degrees of overlap in time that show strong correspondence with El Niño-Southern Oscillation reconstructions from the eastern equatorial Pacific. These results indicate the potential for peat humification records from New Zealand's ombrotrophic bogs to elucidate past climate variability and also demonstrate the importance of developing multiple well-dated profiles from more than one site.
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