Climate Reconstruction

Th e Cenozoic continental deposits of Western Siberia, Eastern Siberia and the Russian Far East are best described on the basis of carpological records. Th e palaeoclimate evolution has been reconstructed quantitatively (Coexistence Approach) providing inferred data on temperature, precipitation and the mean annual range of these parameters. Climate curves document the transition from very warm and humid conditions in the Late Oligocene via the Middle Miocene Climatic Optimum to a cool temperate climate during the Pliocene. Compared with other time intervals the Miocene climate is the most comprehensively reconstructed. For the Middle Miocene the Siberian and Far Eastern data are combined with the 'NECLIME data set' available for the same time slice, thus allowing a synthesis and discussion of temperature and precipitation patterns on a Eurasia-wide scale. Th e MAT pattern on a Eurasia-wide scale shows a strong latitudinal temperature increase from the Russian Far East to China, and a well expressed longitudinal gradient from Western Siberia to warmer conditions in Europe, the Black Sea area and the Eastern Mediterranean. Th e reconstructed MAP of Western Siberia is around 1000 mm, which is close to the data obtained for the continental interior of Northern China but lower than most of the data in the Eurasian data set.

The investigation of the fossil floras from the Turgai plateau (central Kazakhstan) contributes to a better understanding of the origin of the temperate Turgai type flora which spread to Kazakhstan and adjacent areas during the OligoceneeMiocene transition. In this paper, we present the results of a carpological and palynological study of the Kumyrtas flora collected from a flora-bearing horizon of the regional coalbearing Zhilanchik suite, dated to the Aquitanian period. Pollen analysis identified 33 taxa, with are dominated by angiosperms (about 73%) and reflect zonal vegetation. The high percentages of Betula (27%) and Pterocarya (7.5%) that were found in this flora allows comparisons with other Aquitanian floras of Kazakhstan. Based on descriptions of fossil fruits and seeds, we determined that 19 taxa were dominant; these taxa had meosphytic herbaceous components, suggesting mostly edaphic local conditions. The incongruence between the carpological and the pollen records suggests a significant taphonomical effect. Quantitative reconstruction of the palaeoclimate based on pollen records supports-and slightly extends-previous findings based on fossil leaf data, but contradicts findings deduced from the carpological record. Plant Functional Type (PFT) classification was used to characterize the vegetation patterns. Pollen records show that about 45% of diversity relates to the arboreal broadleaved deciduous components and ca. 35% to conifers. Fossil fruit and seed data indicate riverine vegetation with a high diversity of aquatic components and shrub stratum.

In Southern Europe, droughts are one of the most relevant extreme weather events [1], causing severe socioeconomic losses and human health impacts. With recent global and regional warming [1,2], droughts in the Iberian Peninsula (IP) have become more frequent and severe [3,4], revealing significant vulnerability and exposure of ecosystems and humans [2]. Changes in the frequency and/or intensity of extreme weather and climate events are bound to impinge profound environmental and socio-economic impacts in the next decades [1]. In this work, the regional climate change in the IP for time periods when the global mean temperature increased 1.5o and 2oC when compared to pre-industrial conditions was assessed in terms of drought evaluation. To achieve the proposed goal drought changes have been investigated using two of the most widely used drought indicators, the Standardized Precipitation Index (SPI) and the Standardized Precipitation and Evapotranspiration Index (SPEI). Both indices w...

Documentary climate data describe evidence of past climate arising from predominantly written historical documents such as diaries, chronicles, newspapers, or logbooks. Over the past decades, historians and climatologists have generated numerous document-based time series of local and regional climate. However, a global dataset of documentary climate time series has never been compiled, and documentary data are rarely used in large-scale climate reconstructions. Here, we present the first global multi-variable collection of documentary climate records. The dataset DOCU-CLIM comprises 621 time series (both published and hitherto unpublished) providing information on historical variations in temperature, precipitation, and wind regime. The series are evaluated by formulating proxy forward models (i.e., predicting the documentary observations from climate fields) in an overlapping period. Results show strong correlations particularly for the temperature sensitive series. Correlations a...

Several studies have used grape harvest date (GHD) as a proxy for temperature variations of the last centuries in Europe. However, the use of grape harvest dates to reconstruct climate is not straightforward, with four possible causes of major flaws. In this study we identify and evaluate the accuracy of GHD as a proxy to past temperature anomalies, uncertainties in the model used to relate temperature to GHD, identity of the grape varieties cultivated in the past, type of wine produced in the past and cultural practices used in the past. Our analyses are based on several phenological and crop models, and on the most complete data set on grape vine phenology and harvest quality. We show that the two methodologies currently used — linear regression models and process-based phenological models — can be accurate, but process-based phenological models ascertain robustness to be applied confidently in different vineyards and different periods. However, we show that several factors can in...

Increasing temperatures and severe droughts threaten forest vitality globally. Prediction of forest response to climate change requires knowledge of the spatiotemporal patterns of monthly or seasonal climatic impacts on the growth of tree species, likely driven by local climatic aridity, climate trends, edaphic conditions, and the climatic adaption of tree species. The ability of tree species to cope with changing climate and the effects of environmental variables on growth trends and growth-climate relationships across diverse bioclimatic regions are still poorly understood for many species. This study investigated radial growth trends, interannual growth variability, and growth-climate sensitivity of two dominant tree species, Pinus tabulaeformis (PT) and Pinus sylvestris var. mongolica (PS), across a broad climatic gradient with a variety of soil properties in temperate Northern China. Using a network of 83 tree ring chronologies (54 for PT and 29 for PS) from 1971 to 2010, we documented that both species maintained constant growth trends at wet sites, while both displayed rapid declines at dry sites. We reported the species-specific drivers of spatial heterogeneity in growth trends, interannual growth variability, and growth-climate relationships. Calculated climatic variables and soil properties were identified as the most critical factors affecting the growth trends and growth-climate relationships. However, climatic variables play more essential roles than soil properties in determining the spatial heterogeneity of the growth-climate relationship. Lower clay content and higher soil nutrient regimes can exacerbate the moisture-related susceptibility of tree growth. Our findings highlight that soil properties emerged as important modulating factors to predict the drought vulnerability of forests in addition to climatic variables. Considering the continued climate warmingdrying trend in the future, both pines will face a more severe growth decline and increase in drought vulnerability at drier sites with lower clayed soil or higher nutrient regimes.

L a sequía de los últimos años que ha afectado al norte-centro de México pone de manifiesto la necesidad de contar con datos hidroclimáticos extensos que permitan conocer las fluctuaciones y tendencias en el tiempo, con el fin de establecer acciones de planeación y mitigación de los recursos hídricos. En este trabajo con técnicas dendrocronológicas, se generó una reconstrucción de escurrimientos de 800 años para la parte alta de la cuenca del río Nazas. La reconstrucción mostró alta variación interanual y multianual; sequías prolongadas se presentaron en las décadas

Documentary climate data describe evidence of past climate arising from predominantly written historical documents such as diaries, chronicles, newspapers, or logbooks. Over the past decades, historians and climatologists have generated numerous document-based time series of local and regional climate. However, a global dataset of documentary climate time series has never been compiled, and documentary data are rarely used in large-scale climate reconstructions. Here, we present the first global multi-variable collection of documentary climate records. The dataset DOCU-CLIM comprises 621 time series (both published and hitherto unpublished) providing information on historical variations in temperature, precipitation, and wind regime. The series are evaluated by formulating proxy forward models (i.e., predicting the documentary observations from climate fields) in an overlapping period. Results show strong correlations particularly for the temperature sensitive series. Correlations a...

Co-authored with Melissa J. Lazenby, Michael R. Frogley, Cecile, Dai, and Wenqi Su. This article proposes a novel methodology for reconstructing past climatic conditions in regions and time periods for which there is limited evidence from documentary and natural proxy sources. Focusing on present-day inland Tanzania during the period 1856-1890, it integrates evidence from qualitative documentary sources with quantitative outputs from climate reanalysis and global circulation models (GCMs), which enables the creation of interdisciplinary seasonal time series of rainfall variability for three distinct locales. It does so by indexing each dataset to the same sevenpoint scale and weighting each output according to a predefined level of confidence in the documentary data. This process challenges the subjectivity of nineteenth-century Europeans in Africa, whose reports form the basis of the documentary material, and adds evidence from the region, which is currently lacking from the latest reanalysis products and GCMs. The result is an interpretation of documentary materials that is grounded in methods from both the humanities and natural sciences, as well as a more locally grounded estimation of rainfall that would otherwise be gained from referring to reanalysis or GCMs alone. The methodology is validated with reference to observed long-term trends gathered from (paleo)limnological studies and short-term trends gathered from documentary materials and instrumental records in nearby regions. It is shown to provide marked insights into four periods of environmental stress in the region's late nineteenth-century past. Future challenges may involve integrating evidence from oral traditions, which will require more in-region research and collaboration, and adapting the methodology for other regions and time periods.

Libor Musil a Mirka Necasova popisuji dilemata, s nimiž se potýkaji socialni pracovnici, kteři se v každodennich podminkach života sve organizace snaži komplexně a dlouhodobě podporovat schopnost rodiny zvladat potiže s bydlenim. Autoři nabizi k diskusi teoretický model procesu vzniku zvladani dilemat prace s klientem, který by socialni pracovnici mohli využit jako nastroj sebereflexe.

Forest fires are a key disturbance in boreal forests, and characteristics of fire regimes are among the most important factors explaining the variation in forest structure and species composition. The occurrence of fire is connected with climate, but earlier, mostly local‐scale studies in the northern European boreal forests have provided little insight into fire–climate relationship before the modern fire suppression period. Here, we compiled annually resolved fire history, temperature, and precipitation reconstructions from eastern Fennoscandia from the mid‐16th century to the end of the 19th century, a period of strong human influence on fires. We used synchrony of fires over the network of 25 fire history reconstructions as a measure of climatic forcing on fires. We examined the relationship between fire occurrence and climate (summer temperature, precipitation, and a drought index summarizing the influence of variability in temperature and precipitation) across temporal scales,...

Documentary climate data describe evidence of past climate arising from predominantly written historical documents such as diaries, chronicles, newspapers, or logbooks. Over the past decades, historians and climatologists have generated numerous document-based time series of local and regional climate. However, a global dataset of documentary climate time series has never been compiled, and documentary data are rarely used in large-scale climate reconstructions. Here, we present the first global multi-variable collection of documentary climate records. The dataset DOCU-CLIM comprises 621 time series (both published and hitherto unpublished) providing information on historical variations in temperature, precipitation, and wind regime. The series are evaluated by formulating proxy forward models (i.e., predicting the documentary observations from climate fields) in an overlapping period. Results show strong correlations particularly for the temperature sensitive series. Correlations a...

Documentary climate data describe evidence of past climate arising from predominantly written historical documents such as diaries, chronicles, newspapers, or logbooks. Over the past decades, historians and climatologists have generated numerous document-based time series of local and regional climate. However, a global dataset of documentary climate time series has never been compiled, and documentary data are rarely used in large-scale climate reconstructions. Here, we present the first global multi-variable collection of documentary climate records. The dataset DOCU-CLIM comprises 621 time series (both published and hitherto unpublished) providing information on historical variations in temperature, precipitation, and wind regime. The series are evaluated by formulating proxy forward models (i.e., predicting the documentary observations from climate fields) in an overlapping period. Results show strong correlations particularly for the temperature sensitive series. Correlations a...

Documentary climate data describe evidence of past climate arising from predominantly written historical documents such as diaries, chronicles, newspapers, or logbooks. Over the past decades, historians and climatologists have generated numerous document-based time series of local and regional climate. However, a global dataset of documentary climate time series has never been compiled, and documentary data are rarely used in large-scale climate reconstructions. Here, we present the first global multi-variable collection of documentary climate records. The dataset DOCU-CLIM comprises 621 time series (both published and hitherto unpublished) providing information on historical variations in temperature, precipitation, and wind regime. The series are evaluated by formulating proxy forward models (i.e., predicting the documentary observations from climate fields) in an overlapping period. Results show strong correlations particularly for the temperature sensitive series. Correlations a...

It has been argued that we have now entered the Anthropocene, a proposed epoch in which humans are having a dominant impact on the Earth system. While some geologists have sought to formalize the Anthropocene as beginning in the mid-twentieth century, its social, geophysical, and environmental roots undoubtedly lie deeper in the past. In this review, we highlight the ways in which human activities across the major biomes of our planet significantly altered parts of the Earth system prior to the Industrial Age. We demonstrate ways in which novel, multidisciplinary approaches can provide detailed insights into long-term human-environment-Earth system interactions. We argue that there is clear evidence for lasting Earth system legacies of pre-Industrial human societies and that archaeology, paleoecology, and historical ecology can provide important, practical insights to help navigate current and future relationships with the planet in more equitable and sustainable ways. Contents

Documentary climate data describe evidence of past climate arising from predominantly written historical documents such as diaries, chronicles, newspapers, or logbooks. Over the past decades, historians and climatologists have generated numerous document-based time series of local and regional climate. However, a global dataset of documentary climate time series has never been compiled, and documentary data are rarely used in large-scale climate reconstructions. Here, we present the first global multi-variable collection of documentary climate records. The dataset DOCU-CLIM comprises 621 time series (both published and hitherto unpublished) providing information on historical variations in temperature, precipitation, and wind regime. The series are evaluated by formulating proxy forward models (i.e., predicting the documentary observations from climate fields) in an overlapping period. Results show strong correlations particularly for the temperature sensitive series. Correlations a...

The development of quantitative temperature reconstructions in regions of paleoclimate interest is an important step for providing reliable temperature estimates in that region. Fossil chironomid assemblages have been studied in Patagonia showing great promise for reconstructing paleotemperatures; however there is still a lack of robust temperature inference models in that area. To contribute to the understanding of climate change, a transfer function using chironomids preserved in 46 lakes in Chile and Argentina was developed. The best performing model to infer the mean air temperature of the warmest month was a 3-component WA-PLS model with a coefficient of correlation (r 2 jack) of 0.56, a root mean square error of prediction (RMSEP) of 1.69°C and a maximum bias of 2.07°C. This model was applied to the chironomids preserved in the sediment of the Huelmo mire (41°31′ S, 73°00′ W), in the lake district of northwestern Patagonia. The reconstruction showed several cold spells (one at 13,200 to 13,000 cal yr BP and a cooling trend between 12,600 and 11,500 cal yr BP) associated with the Younger Dryas and/or Huelmo-Mascardi Cold Reversal (HMCR). Our findings support climate models proposing fast acting inter-hemispheric coupling mechanisms including the recently proposed bipolar atmospheric and/or bipolar ocean teleconnections rather than a bipolar seesaw model.

Hemos evaluado el impacto de la Oscilación del Atlántico Norte durante el invierno en el la variabilidad espacial y temporal de la radiación solar en la región del Atlántico Norte. Con este objeto hemos analizado datos de reanálisis del NCEP-NCAR CDAS-1, consistentes en radiación solar de onda corta en el periodo 1949-2002 y datos promedio mensuales de horas de sol procedentes del European Solar Radiation Atlas. La correlación entre el índice NAO y los datos de horas de sol muestran un patrón bipolar sobre la región del Atlántico Norte, con correlación máxima positiva sobre la Península Ibérica, de valor 0.75, y correlación máxima negativa sobre Noruega, con un valor-0.71. Los datos de reanálisis confirman estos resultados. Un análisis de componentes principales revela que el segundo modo de variabilidad de la radiación solar en Europa, que explica un 22.4% de la variabilidad, puede ser asociado con la NAO. Finalmente, un análisis de regresión indica, para el norte de Europa, anomalías negativas (-10% a-20%), asociadas a NAO>1, y anomalías positivas (10% a 20%) asociadas a NAO<-1; para el sur de Europa estas anomalías son, de entre el 10% y el 20% y de entre el-10% y el-20%, respectivamente.

Publication list Introduction Stable isotopes General considerations Definitions Mechanisms of isotope fractionation 1) Physical fractionations 2) Chemical fractionations Isotopomers Measurements of isotope and isotopomer abundance 1) IRMS 3) FTIR 2) NMR Climate change Open questions Tree rings as a proxy for climate (dendroclimatology) 1) Physical characteristics of tree rings 2) Chemical characteristics of tree rings Persistent organic pollutants in the environment Definition Identification of their origin and fate Results and conclusions Paper I Paper II Paper III Paper IV Unpublished results related to Paper IV General conclusion

Publication list Introduction Stable isotopes General considerations Definitions Mechanisms of isotope fractionation 1) Physical fractionations 2) Chemical fractionations Isotopomers Measurements of isotope and isotopomer abundance 1) IRMS 3) FTIR 2) NMR Climate change Open questions Tree rings as a proxy for climate (dendroclimatology) 1) Physical characteristics of tree rings 2) Chemical characteristics of tree rings Persistent organic pollutants in the environment Definition Identification of their origin and fate Results and conclusions Paper I Paper II Paper III Paper IV Unpublished results related to Paper IV General conclusion

bylo 42 %), přičemž významným podpůrným faktorem pro zavedení se jeví především oblast vzdělání vedoucích pracovníkůmanažeři se vzděláním v sociální práci jeví o supervizi větší zájem než vedoucí pracovníci s jiným zaměřením. Supervize realizovaná na pracovištích je většinou vedoucích pracovníků (92 % z nich) vnímána jako přínosná a zvyšující se informovanost jim umožňuje dojednat supervizi dle potřeb pracoviště. Ke hlavním zjištěním výzkumu jako celku však patří prokázání pozitivního vlivu povinného zakotvení supervize na její využívání v těch oblastech sociální práce, u kterých je supervise součástí standard kvality, a to (v dlouhodobém horizontu) bez negativního efektu na faktický přínos supervize, tj. nepotvrdily se obavy, že povinně realizovaná supervize bude prováděna pouze formálně. Tyto i další výsledky prezentovaného výzkumu mohou přispět do diskuze o místě supervize ve zdravotnictví nejen u zdravotně sociálních pracovníků.

The paper discusses the issue of the use of supervision of health and social workers and social workers in health care. Partial results of the research “Supervision in social work 2016” are presented and interpreted. The research continues to a similar survey carried out in 2007. The research was designed like a questionnaire survey among managers of health and social workers. Comparing surveys from 2007 and 2016 highlights the growing importance of supervision in health care - supervision currently is used in 58 % of organizations ( 42 % in 2007).Results show the importance of area of managers´education - those, who are social workers, seem more interested in supervision than other managers. 92 % of managers describe supervision of health and social workers like beneficial and supporting process in their workplaces. The main finding of whole research is, that mandatory supervision as a part of quality standards influences very strong and positively to implementing supervision (in t...

La validación de los modelos climáticos es fundamental, pues nos aporta confianza en su uso posterior para diferentes aplicaciones. La precisión de un modelo se evalúa a comprobando su capacidad para reproducir las observaciones. Sin embargo, la naturaleza de los procedimientos para obtener medidas, así como las técnicas estadísticas empleadas para extrapolar esta información a bases de datos en retícula, hacen que aparezcan incertidumbres importantes que dificultan el proceso de validación. En este trabajo se presentan los resultados de la evaluación de la habilidad de todos los miembros de dos conjuntos de simulaciones regionales climáticas para la reproducción de la precipitación y temperaturas máximas y mínimas utilizando tres bases de datos reticulares diferentes (SPAIN02, AEMET y E-OBS), que tienen una resolución espacial similar (aprox 25 km). El primer conjunto es multifísica (30 km) y consta de ocho miembros. El segundo conjunto es multimodelo (ESCENA) y consta de 5 miembros (25 km de resolución). Los resultados indican que la bondad de los miembros del conjunto en la reproducción de la climatología observada sobre España depende de las base de datos seleccionada. Estos resultados pueden tener implicaciones sobre las discusiones que se están llevando a cabo en la comunidad de cambio climático respecto a la ponderación de los modelos regionales del clima en conjuntos de proyecciones de futuro.

Poruchy duševního zdraví, profesní vyhoření a vyčerpání se nejvýrazněji projevují u pracovníků pomáhajících profesí, kde dochází k častým sociálním interakcím. Aby nedocházelo ke vzniku profesionální deformace, má pro výkon těchto profesí obrovský význam psychohygiena a prevence psychických problémů. Za jednu z možností prevence duševních poruch lze považovat léčebný pobyt ve specializovaném lázeňském zařízení, což demonstrují výsledky této studie. Na základě výsledků provedeného standardizovaného dotazníkového šetření POMS (Profile of Mood States) lze pozorovat významnou změnu jednotlivých dimenzí psychického stavu zúčastněných probandů po absolvování 7denního pobytu ve specializovaném lázeňském zařízení. Největší změna po absolvování lázeňského pobytu byla pozorována v oblasti únavy. Pobyt v lázních slouží k podpoře obranných mechanismů jedinců, posiluje základní fyziologické funkce a vede k částečné nebo úplné obnově narušených psychických funkcí organizmu.

Changing climate can strongly affect tree growth and forest productivity. The dendrochronological approach to assessing the impact of climate change on tree growth is possible through climate–growth correlation analysis. This study uses an individual tree-based approach to model Pinus wallichiana (P. wallichiana) radial growth response to climate across the physiographic gradients in the lower distributional range of Nepal. This study sampled six sites across the Makwanpur district of central Nepal that varied in elevation and aspect, obtaining 180 tree-ring series. Climate data series were obtained from Climate Research Unit (CRU 4.0). The pair correlation approach was used to assess P. wallichiana growth response to climate and site-level physiographic variables such as site-level environmental stress. The study also determined long-term growth trends across the elevation and aspect gradients. Trees at sites with higher elevation and northeast aspect (NEA) were more responsive to ...

The Himalayan region has already witnessed profound climate changes detectable in the cryosphere and the hydrological cycle, already resulting in drastic socio-economic impacts. We developed a 619-yea-long tree-ring-width chronology from the central Nepal Himalaya, spanning the period 1399–2017 CE. However, due to low replication of the early part of the chronology, only the section after 1600 CE was used for climate reconstruction. Proxy climate relationships indicate that temperature conditions during spring (March–May) are the main forcing factor for tree growth of Tsuga dumosa at the study site. We developed a robust climate reconstruction model and reconstructed spring temperatures for the period 1600–2017 CE. Our reconstruction showed cooler conditions during 1658–1681 CE, 1705–1722 CE, 1753–1773 CE, 1796–1874 CE, 1900–1936 CE, and 1973 CE. Periods with comparably warmer conditions occurred in 1600–1625 CE, 1633–1657 CE, 1682–1704 CE, 1740–1752 CE, 1779–1795 CE, 1936–1945 CE, ...

The climate of Nepal has changed rapidly over the recent decades, but most instrumental records of weather and hydrology only extend back to the 1980s. Tree rings can provide a longer perspective on recent environmental changes, and since the early 2000s, a new round of field initiatives by international researchers and Nepali scientists have more than doubled the size of the country’s tree-ring network. In this paper, we present a comprehensive analysis of the current tree-ring width network for Nepal, and use this network to estimate changes in forest growth nation-wide during the last four centuries. Ring-width chronologies in Nepal have been developed from 11 tree species, and half of the records span at least 290 years. The Nepal tree-ring width network provides a robust estimate of annual forest growth over roughly the last four centuries, but prior to this point, our mean ring-width composite fluctuates wildly due to low sample replication. Over the last four centuries, two m...

Several studies have used grape harvest date (GHD) as a proxy for temperature variations of the last centuries in Europe. However, the use of grape harvest dates to reconstruct climate is not straightforward, with four possible causes of major flaws. In this study we identify and evaluate the accuracy of GHD as a proxy to past temperature anomalies, uncertainties in the model used to relate temperature to GHD, identity of the grape varieties cultivated in the past, type of wine produced in the past and cultural practices used in the past. Our analyses are based on several phenological and crop models, and on the most complete data set on grape vine phenology and harvest quality. We show that the two methodologies currently used — linear regression models and process-based phenological models — can be accurate, but process-based phenological models ascertain robustness to be applied confidently in different vineyards and different periods. However, we show that several factors can in...

HAL is a multi-disciplinary open access archive for the deposit and dissemination of scientific research documents, whether they are published or not. The documents may come from teaching and research institutions in France or abroad, or from public or private research centers. L'archive ouverte pluridisciplinaire HAL, est destinée au dépôt et à la diffusion de documents scientifiques de niveau recherche, publiés ou non, émanant des établissements d'enseignement et de recherche français ou étrangers, des laboratoires publics ou privés.

corresponding author, is trained dendroclimatologist, with interest in forest growth from mountainous, extreme sites and urban trees. He joined team as a PhD student in order to develop dendrochronological network in western part of Balkan Peninsula, continued with sunshine reconstruction and climatic signal test of blue intensity and needle trace method on black pine. Currently, he investigates drought stress of urban trees in Ljubljana, Slovenia.

The Eemian interglacial represents a natural experiment on how past vegetation with negligible human impact responded to amplified temperature changes compared to the Holocene. Here, we assemble 47 carefully selected Eemian pollen sequences from Europe to explore geographical patterns of (1) total compositional turnover and total variation for each sequence and (2) stratigraphical turnover between samples within each sequence using detrended canonical correspondence analysis, multivariate regression trees, and principal curves. Our synthesis shows that turnover and variation are highest in central Europe (47-55°N), low in southern Europe (south of 45°N), and lowest in the north (above 60°N). These results provide a basis for developing hypotheses about causes of vegetation change during the Eemian and their possible drivers. Keywords Detrended canonical correspondence analysis • Extrinsic and intrinsic processes • Inertia • Last interglacial dataset • Multivariate regression trees • Neutral processes • Principal curves Communicated by F. Bittmann.

Using Ion Torrent sequencing of the V4 region of the 16S rRNA gene, we investigated the sediment from four anchialine caves on Eleuthera (Bahamas). Anchialine caves are secluded, landlocked marine ecosystems, with high degrees of endemism. In the cave sediments, the bacterial and archaeal communities differ from marine communities and between caves, while often resembling those from low oxygen or anaerobic marine sediments. The waters of all caves investigated here were mostly saline and oxygenated, with Windermere Abyss differing from the other caves. This was mirrored by the bacterial and archaeal communities, with members of the wb1-A12 clade, Nitrosopumilaceae, members of the NB1-j phylum, and Actinomarinales being dominant in Preacher’s Blue Hole, Valentine’s Cave, and Bung Hole while Desulfatiglans, Bathyarchaeia, and members of the GIF3 and Sva0485 clades were dominant in Windermere Abyss. All communities showed taxa found in oxygenated and anoxic sediments, thus indicating a...

This study reports the first successful statistical 'crossdating' among ring width time series from many specimens of petrified wood, based samples of the genus Quercus from the Stinking Water (SW) site in Oregon, a Miocene-aged exposure associated with the Columbia River Basalts. Ring width time series from 26 radii, 17 different trees, show significant intercorrelation. 40AR/39AR dating on pillow basalt from the locality yielded a weighted Plateau Age of 13.79 ±0.09 Ma placing the death of the trees at the end of the Langhian Stage of the Middle Miocene (15.97±0.05 to 13.65±0.05 Ma), during the middle Miocene Climate Transition (MMCT).A Modified Coexistence Approach was applied to determine the likely climate range when the SW trees were growing. The modified approach included regression of site-mean ring width time series statistic values on estimated soil moisture for the site locations, using site-mean data from 126 modern Quercus sites from across the United States. Identification of highly significant linearities indicated strong relationships between ring width intercorrelation and soil moisture and ring width variability and soil moisture. Comparison of individual modern site-mean statistical values with values calculated for the SW locality suggests a mesic growing environment for the SW Quercus, with moderate temperatures. Geographic placement of modern Quercus sites with site-mean statistics similar to the SW values indicates a modern analogue in the eastern United States. Modern distributions of mesic species in the genera present at the SW locality suggest similarities with the central and southern Appalachian Mountains and the Ozark/Ouachita Mountains, indicating a mean annual temperature range of ≅10°C to ≅15°C and a mean annual precipitation range of ≅750 mm to ≅1200 mm when the SW Quercus were growing.

The Eemian interglacial represents a natural experiment on how past vegetation with negligible human impact responded to amplified temperature changes compared to the Holocene. Here, we assemble 47 carefully selected Eemian pollen sequences from Europe to explore geographical patterns of (1) total compositional turnover and total variation for each sequence and (2) stratigraphical turnover between samples within each sequence using detrended canonical correspondence analysis, multivariate regression trees, and principal curves. Our synthesis shows that turnover and variation are highest in central Europe (47-55°N), low in southern Europe (south of 45°N), and lowest in the north (above 60°N). These results provide a basis for developing hypotheses about causes of vegetation change during the Eemian and their possible drivers. Keywords Detrended canonical correspondence analysis • Extrinsic and intrinsic processes • Inertia • Last interglacial dataset • Multivariate regression trees • Neutral processes • Principal curves Communicated by F. Bittmann.

HAL is a multidisciplinary open access archive for the deposit and dissemination of scientific research documents, whether they are published or not. The documents may come from teaching and research institutions in France or abroad, or from public or private research centers. L'archive ouverte pluridisciplinaire HAL, est destinée au dépôt et à la diffusion de documents scientifiques de niveau recherche, publiés ou non, émanant des établissements d'enseignement et de recherche français ou étrangers, des laboratoires publics ou privés.

The geographic source for human populations that colonized Australia and New Guinea was undoubtedly mainland Southeast Asia. As Figure 1 illustrates, lower sea levels for most of the Pleistocene united the present islands of Sumatra, Java, Borneo, and the Malay Peninsula into a single large land mass called Sundaland that covered almost 2 million km 2 (Ollier 1980). The interior of this subcontinent was drained by a large river system that emptied into the China Sea to the northeast. Several models have been put forward to reconstruct patterns of adaptation and dispersal throughout the new country. One model (Bowdler 1977, 1996) argues that initial migrants focused on exploitation of maritime resources and explored coastal areas before moving inland into new environments. Another model (Rindos and Webb 1992) argues that migrants to new environments did not require specialized skills and that dispersal throughout all areas of the country occurred relatively quickly. Mulvaney and Kamminga (1999: 132) point out that ethnographically known Australian indigenous groups living in proximity to maritime resources also have an inland component to the seasonal round. Groups that fished, hunted marine mammals and turtles, and gathered molluscs in coastal environments also moved inland on a seasonal basis to hunt terrestrial animals and gather plants. A seasonal round that facilitated the exploration of new environments while maintaining a Karen Mudar is an archeologist with the Archeology Program,

Eilandvlei forms part of the Wilderness Lakes system located along the southern Cape coast of South Africa (Figure 1A, B). These lakes are located behind Pleistocene dune ridges that run parallel along the coastline. Situated within South Africa's aseasonal rainfall zone, climate is influenced by both temperate and tropical circulation systems. The regional vegetation (Figure 1B, C) is most noteworthy for the extensive development of Southern Afrotemperate Forest (generally Afrocarpus falcatus, Podocarpus latifolius, Ocotea bullata (Lauraceae) and Olea capensis spp. marcocarpa (Oleaceae)), which is found in valleys and on the south-facing slopes of the adjacent river catchments A variety of fynbos types occupy

Due to the scarcity of natural archives for palaeoenvironmental studies, the climatic evolution of South Africa during the late Quaternary remains the subject of considerable debate. Peat deposits provide excellent archives to investigate past environmental and climate variability. Vankervelsvlei, a fen near the southern Cape coast, located 152 m above mean sea level within the year-round rainfall zone of South Africa, is ideally suited to investigate past environmental changes in this region. A 14.6 m long sediment sequence was retrieved from the fen, from which 8.85 m of sediment have been analysed using a multiproxy approach. This includes elemental, macrofossil and micropalaeontological analyses. As a novelty in palaeoenvironmental reconstruction in this region, leaf wax n-alkanes and their compound-specific stable carbon and hydrogen isotopes were also investigated. The chronology of the sequence is based on 13 radiocarbon ages and reveals a basal age of 37,430 þ1,570 /-1,710 cal BP. The top of the investigated sequence has an age of 1,180 þ340 /-170 cal BP. Leaf wax nalkane abundances and their compound-specific stable carbon and hydrogen isotopes, as well as various (in)organic (bio)geochemical parameters, indicate that the older section of the sequence (37,430 þ1,570 /-1,710-28,050 þ510 /-600 cal BP), which is composed of strongly degraded peat, represents a rather dry phase during MIS 3. This is followed by a hiatus of around 20,000 years (28,050 þ510 /-600 to 8,360 þ730 /-810 cal BP) reflecting the driest conditions during MIS 2. By comparing to supra-regional archives, this is hypothesised to have resulted from a larger extension of the Antarctic sea ice, which caused an equatorward shift of the Westerlies, blocking the tropical easterlies and resulting in drier conditions along the south coast and the adjacent coastal platform. During the Early Holocene, the input of reworked soil into the depression and subsequently renewed peat formation from 6,820 þ305 /-365 cal BP to 1,180 þ340 /-170 cal BP in Vankervelsvlei point to moister climatic conditions. Contraction of Antarctic sea ice and a poleward shift of the Westerlies during the Holocene is consistent with this interpretation. Climatic driving forces are suggested to differ between centennial/millennial and orbital time scales. Evapotranspirative enrichment through stronger winds is assumed to be the main driver on centennial to millennial time scale within this hydrological system. However, a combination of evapotranspiration and precipitation amount seems to be the most prominent driver on the orbital time scales.

Ústav ošetrovateľstva, Jesseniova lekárska fakulta v Martine, Univerzita Komenského v Bratislave Dětské sestry mají významnou a nezastupitelnou roli v péči o zdravé i nemocné dítě. Tato role je ovlivňována poměrně širokou skupinou faktorů, které zásadním způsobem podmiňují úroveň kvality poskytované péče a bezpečnost dětských pacientů. Jeden z důležitých vlivů působících na práci sester představuje jejich pracovní prostředí. Nezbytným předpokladem kvalitní a bezpečné pediatrické péče je, aby dětské sestry tyto faktory znaly a dokázaly je využít ve prospěch dítěte. Proto se tento příspěvek zaměřuje na určení a popis faktorů ovlivňujících prostředí tak, jak jsou charakterizovány v dostupných zdrojích.

This paper reviews the data on quaternary palynological sequences collected in the Czech Republic, attempts to store them in the Czech Quaternary Palynological Database (PALYCZ) and outlines a possible use for regional syntheses. Work on pollen stratigraphies done over the last hundred years has yielded a very large amount of data for this region. These data can be used globally for various types of environmental reconstructions and are of local importance, especially when combined with local databases. For data to be included in PALYCZ it has to meet certain criteria, the determination of the pollen of herbaceous plants must be well resolved and radiocarbon dated. As of 31 December 2008, we had reviewed 177 pollen profiles. Data from 152 sequences are already stored in PostgreSQL® in relational tables, which allow a broad range of queries to be addressed using the html protocol. The data collected since 1959 by 15 authors contain raw pollen counts together with 14 C dates and various metadata on locality. All the pollen samples were ordered using non-metric multidimensional scaling. Display of the ordination diagram incorporating the appropriate millennial time slices revealed a common pattern in all data. The quality of data is also discussed in the context of the history of the research and methods used. Database access can be found at http://botany.natur.cuni.cz/palycz.

In the study area, Pinus wallichiana one of the most dominant species at upper timberline, reaching age up to 700-years old was selected for the dendroclimatological study in the Karakoram region, northern Pakistan. In this paper, we demonstrated the relationship between its radial growth and climatic factors using two standard chronologies of Pinus wallichiana. Tree-ring width site chronologies showed a strong positive response to temperature (p&lt;0.05) and weak response to precipitation and Palmer Drought Severity Index (PDSI). We found a significant positive correlation with March-May, June-August, April-September of the current growth season, and previous year October to current year September (annual) temperature. These findings confirm that the Pinus wallichiana growth is mainly limited to temperature rather than precipitation and PDSI, and suggest that this species (Pinus wallichiana) is potential for the climate reconstruction in the study area.

The Eemian interglacial represents a natural experiment on how past vegetation with negligible human impact responded to amplified temperature changes compared to the Holocene. Here, we assemble 47 carefully selected Eemian pollen sequences from Europe to explore geographical patterns of (1) total compositional turnover and total variation for each sequence and (2) stratigraphical turnover between samples within each sequence using detrended canonical correspondence analysis, multivariate regression trees, and principal curves. Our synthesis shows that turnover and variation are highest in central Europe (47-55°N), low in southern Europe (south of 45°N), and lowest in the north (above 60°N). These results provide a basis for developing hypotheses about causes of vegetation change during the Eemian and their possible drivers. Keywords Detrended canonical correspondence analysis • Extrinsic and intrinsic processes • Inertia • Last interglacial dataset • Multivariate regression trees • Neutral processes • Principal curves Communicated by F. Bittmann.