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Oxygen isotopes in biogenic silica (δ18OBSi) from lake sediments allow for quantitative reconstruction of past hydroclimate and proxy–model comparison in terrestrial environments. The signals of individual records have been attributed to different factors, such as air temperature (Tair), atmospheric circulation patterns, hydrological changes and lake evaporation. While every lake will have its own set of drivers of d18O, here we explore the extent to which regional or even global signals emerge from a series of palaeoenvironmental records. For this purpose, we have identified and compiled 71 down–core records published to date and complemented these datasets with additional lake basin parameters (e.g. lake water residence time and catchment size) to best characterize the signal properties. Records feature widely different temporal coverage and resolution ranging from decadal–scale records covering the last 150 years to records with multi–millennial scale resolution spanning glacial–interglacial cycles. Best coverage in number of records (N = 37) and datapoints (N = 2112) is available for northern hemispheric (NH) extra–tropic regions throughout the Holocene (corresponding to Marine Isotope Stage 1; MIS 1). To address the different variabilities and temporal offsets, records were brought to a common temporal resolution by binning and subsequently filtered for hydrologically open lakes with lake water residence times < 100 yrs. For mid– to high–latitude (> 45° N) lakes, we find common δ18OBSi patterns during both the Holocene and the Common Era and maxima and minima corresponding to known climate episodes such as the Holocene Thermal Maximum (HTM), Neoglacial Cooling, Medieval Climate Anomaly (MCA) and the Little Ice Age (LIA). These patterns are in line with long–term Tair changes supported by previously published climate reconstructions from other archives as well as Holocene summer insolation changes. In conclusion, oxygen isotope records from NH extratopic lake sediments feature a common climate signal at centennial (for CE) and millennial (for Holocene) time scales despite stemming from different lakes in different geographic locations and constitute a valuable proxy for past climate reconstructions.

Climate may have played a critical role in early hominin evolution and dispersion, with rapid changes from humid to hyper-arid observed in East African palaeoclimate records. Many studies show linkages between these climate changes and hominin speciation and dispersion; however, few of them have focused on annual to decadal climate variability. This new study presents paleoenvironmental records (diatom assemblages and oxygen isotopes in diatom biogenic silica, d18Odiatom) from the Ol Njorowa Gorge in Kenya. The study site is located west of the African Rift Valley, from where important hominin dispersals are believed to have taken place. The study site preserves a stratigraphic record of interbedded diatomite beds spanning a key period of theorised hominin dispersals; 150,000 to 80,000 years ago. In this study, diatom assemblages and d18Odiatomrecords are used to understand past changes in moisture and precipitation patterns over East Africa as well as changes in lake water chemistry. d18Odiatom has been used in both lacustrine and oceanic settings since the early 2000s. It is however an under-utilised proxy that holds great potential, especially for diatomites from exposed lake beds where carbonate material is scarce or inexistant. The study also uses high resolution scanning XRF data from diatomite blocks to develop an age model for the diatomite beds at an annual timescale.