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Focuses on the factors affecting biological diversity. Impact of glacial-interglacial cycles on biodiversity; Effects of climatic changes on geographic distribution of species; Importance of southern refugia on the survival of biodiversity.

Presents a study on the probable length of the warm interglacial climate. Information on the Eemian and Holocene interglacial periods; Implications of the greenhouse effect to the climate; Effect of anthropogenic carbon dioxide emissions on the dynamics of ice-age cycles.

Glaciation in the humid tropical Andes is a sensitive indicator of mean annual temperature. Here, we present sedimentological data from lakes beyond the glacial limit in the tropical Andes indicating that deglaciation from the Last Glacial Maximum led substantial warming at high northern latitudes. Deglaciation from glacial maximum positions at lake Titicaca, Peru/Bolivia (16°S), and Lake Junin, Peru (11°S), occurred 22,000 to 19,500 calendar years before the present, several thousand years before the Bølling-Allerød warming of the Northern Hemisphere and deglaciation of the Sierra Nevada, United States (36.5° to 38°N). The tropical Andes deglaciated white climatic conditions remained regionally wet, which reflects the dominant control of mean annual temperature on tropical glaciation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Investigates the roles of glacial meltwater and continental drainage in glacial and climatic instability. Review of numerical modeling studies of ocean circulation; Suggestion on the themohaline circulation of the oceans; Changes in the amount and location of freshwater discharge.

Reports developments related to science as of January 2002. Increase in the availability of iron during glacial periods in Southern Ocean; Occurrence of virulent infections due to soil fungus Cryptococcus neoformans; Effects of initial cell division of plant zygote.

Provides information on the Younger Dryas (YD) period. Hypotheses on the effect of YD; How to identify oceanic and atmospheric teleconnections that linked regional climates during glacial-interglacial cycles; Climate indicators from both South and North America that reveal climatic reversals of glacial-interglacial transition.

Comments on the article `An Appealing Snowball Earth That's Still Hard to Swallow,' by Richard A. Kerr. Information on the glacial deposits found in low latitudes; Assumption of the snowball Earth hypothesis and Precambrian climate; Indications of the earliest glacial deposits.

Examines patterns of biodiversity in refugial areas of the Amazonian rain forest, or where temperate fauna and flora existed during full-glacial conditions. Categories of research done on full-glacial refugia; What accounts for the geographic patterns of the genetic variations in fauna and flora; Postulation of the full-glacial refugia theory.

Focuses on the process involved in the occurrence of the last interglacial. How deep-sea sediments provide information on past global climates; Information on the occurrence of the first major invasion of cool waters and icebergs into the central North Atlantic; Alternative interpretation of the Eemian demise.

The article discusses research by Pena and Goldstein in the same issue that used the composition of neodymium in marine sediments to study the change in ocean circulation between glacial cycles.

The article discusses research by paleoclimate modeler Ayako Abe-Ouchi of the University of Tokyo and colleagues in a 2013 issue of "Nature" magazine that linked a type of global climate model used to forecast global warming with a complex model of the northern ice sheets to study how slight changes in Earth's orbit could have driven the great ice ages. The team's discovery of two processes that they believe are key to a realistic glacial cycle are discussed.

The article provides information on a study conducted by Robert P. Ackert Jr. and colleagues in order to determine whether or not southern Patagonia's glacial advance that created it occurred during the chronozone of the Younger Dryas. It mentions that the Ackert and colleagues measured the cosmic-ray exposure ages of the southern Patagonia's glacial moraine. Soon after the end of the Younger Dryas, moraine was deposited followed by the growth of the glacier in response to more precipitation. This suggests that Southern Hemisphere's temperature did not drop like those in the Northern Hemisphere during the Younger Dryas.

The article focuses on the deglaciation during Pleistocene epoch. A compiled evidence suggests that the sea levels would fluctuate by 30 to 40 meters during the start of warm intervals. This occurrence will confirm the variability of relative elevations of deposits in Greek shoreline. Information to determine the sample ages using U/Th dating found out that the sea level will drop twice precipitously between 136,000 and 135, 000 years in Red Sea and Papua, New Guinea. These results will constrain the timing of sea-level rise during the penultimate deglaciation.

The article focuses on the impact of environmental changes on civilization. Anthropological archaeologists have examined the significance of environmental influences, such as climate patterns and shoreline movements due to shifting sea level. They compared local climatic and geographical changes with concurrent societal developments in specific regions of the Persian Gulf between 15,000 and 6000 years ago. They found that early societal development was shaped by the formation of productive estuaries, the availability of ample fresh water, and the ability to transport goods over water. Climatic changes particularly the increase in aridity between 6000 and 5000 years ago play an important role in fostering the consolidation of settlements. They found that the emergence of highly organized urban society was the result of the glacial-inter-glacial cycle and related climate changes.

This article presents views of paleoclimatologists about Earth's climate. Indeed, the revival of the Snowball Earth hypothesis almost 7 years ago has bogged down of late, as paleoclimatologists have failed to turn up unequivocal evidence that ice enrobed the planet. A group of geochemists offers a new snowball marker: the element iridium, which continually rains down on us from space. They say they found so much iridium deposited at the end of a glaciation 635 million years ago that the planet must have been frozen pretty much solid for 12 million years straight.

One of the most commonly accepted views of the relation between climate and ocean circulation is known popularly as the "global conveyer," meaning that deep water forms in the North Atlantic Ocean in large amounts during interglacial periods and in smaller volumes during glacial intervals, producing significant changes in the rate of large-scale ocean circulation. Much of the evidence for this belief is based on studies of the carbon isotopic composition of benthic foraminifera, i.e., those that lived on the sea floor over the last glacial/interglacial cycle. Researchers examine this proposition in more detail by comparing and contrasting carbon isotopic profiles from seven sites in the North Atlantic covering the last 27 glacial cycles, a time span of nearly 2 million years.

The El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) is the primary cause of modern interannual variability of tropical climate. Its behavior may depend on the background climate state, particularly whether it is a glacial or warm interval, and that its strength, periodicity, and regularity can change. Using a 350,000-year-old fossil coral from the southwestern tropical Pacific Ocean island of Vanuatu, Kilbourne et al. have measured Sr/Ca and oxygen isotopic anomalies, which are proxies for temperature and salinity changes, and compare them to those of a modern coral from the same location. They interpret these results as showing that ENSO or ENSO-like climate variations were in fact already present 350,000 years ago, although the South Pacific Convergence Zone did not migrate as far northward during austral winter then as it does today.

Examines the importance of atmospheric mineral dust on global climate change. Effect of atmospheric mineral dust on the heat budget of Earth; Role of dust on the formation of carbon dioxide concentration; Influence of glacial cycles to the concentration of atmospheric dust.

Reports on the findings on how the Earth's orbital variation can drive the glacial cycle of Imbrie Shackleton and James Hays of Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory in Palisades, New York. Role of carbon dioxide in glacial cycle; How the conclusion was derived; Computer models developed to reinforce the conclusion.