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What a genius, building a home for more than 10 centuries in the Sahara desert with all the necessary amenities to withstand a hyper-arid climate like that of Timimoun and Tiout. During our work missions during the period: 2000-2019 in the south-west of the Sahara, we were interested in the feeding of Timimoun ksours by the foggaras. This study shows that feeding ksar water remains an unresolved problem for the ksouriens of the Sahara. Two success stories in this area of water have been cited in this paper. These are the ksours of Timimoun which are fed by the foggaras. The ksar of Tiout was supplied with water by an ancestral dam. These are the two cases of the Sahara that have benefited from water with zero energy. These two examples demonstrate the ingenuity of the ksours population. If after ten centuries, the oasis have managed to master the architecture of the ksours, against the supply of ksar in water has shortcomings.

International audience; While the emergence of the Acheulean is well documented in East Africa at ~1.7 Ma, subsequent developments are less well understood and to some extent controversial. Here, we provide robust evidence regarding the time period between 1.6 Ma and 1.2 Ma, based on an interdisciplinary approach to the stratigraphic sequences exposed in the Gombore gully of Melka Kunture, in the upper Awash Valley of Ethiopia. Throughout the Pleistocene, the environment differed significantly from elsewhere in Africa because of the elevation at 2000 m asl, the cooler and rainy climate, the Afromontane vegetation, the development of endemic animal species, and the recurrent impact of volcanic activity. At Gombore IB, dated ~1.6 Ma, remains of Homo erectus/ergaster have been discovered, associated with a rich early Acheulean assemblage. The techno-typological analysis of the lithic record from Gombore Iγ (~1.4 Ma) and Gombore Iδ (~1.3 Ma), where substantial areas have been excavated, and the contrasting evidence from Gombore OAM Test Pit C (~1.2 Ma), suggest that the scarcity or lack of large flakes and large cutting tools at the two earlier sites is possibly not just the outcome of sampling bias, but rather of the adaptation of H. erectus/ergaster to the local resources, in a relatively isolated environment. The sites of Gombore gully provide new evidence on the complex pattern of human evolution and adaptation in East Africa during the Lower Pleistocene.

The analysis of dental calculus (mineralised dental plaque) has become an increasingly important facet of bioarchaeological research. Although microscopic analysis of microdebris entrapped within dental calculus has revealed important insights into the diet, health, and environment of multiple prehistoric populations, relatively few studies have examined the contributions of this approach to more recent historical periods. In this study, we analyze dental calculus from an English Post-Medieval, middle-class urban skeletal assemblage from Manchester, England using light microscopy. We characterize all types of microremains, observing heavily damaged starch and plant material, high quantities of fungal and yeast spores, the presence of wood particles, plant (cotton) and animal (wool) fibres, as well as limited quantities of microcharcoal and burnt debris. We observe the presence of non-native, imported plant products, including New World maize and potentially tapioca starch. We compare our results to similar studies from earlier time periods to reveal the impacts of the significant economic, social and environmental changes occurring during the Industrial period in England, including changes in food processing, food access, food storage, and air quality. We conclude by outlining important methodological considerations for the future study of Post-Medieval dental calculus and propose potential areas of future research.

The purpose of the article is to fi nd out the main principles that unite stratigraphy and ethnology. Oykonymy is universal ethno-historical fact. It is interpreted as a peculiar phenomenon of culture. Oykonymy is an important link of traditional culture in the modern multicultural Ukrainian space. That is why it can be considered in both anthropological and ethno-historical aspect. The article analyzes main aspects of using of stratigraphy of archaic oykonyms for ethnological studies. It is found out main principles that unite stratigraphy and ethnology. Oykonymic stratigraphy is tight connected with oykonymic landscape – a complex linguistic-historical multicomponent system that is the part of anthropogenic space combining stratigraphy of oykonymy and the history of development of ethnic group. Archaic oykonymy of Ukraine has pronounced spatial-temporal dimension and shows us information about the Slavic, in particular Ukrainian, model of the world. Extralinguistic and intralinguistic factors affect the qualitative and quantitative parameters of both oykonymyc and ethnic landscapes. Stratigraphy of archaic place names is represented on a chart which focuses on the consideration of the material in three aspects: areal, chronological and statistical. Thus the article analyzes specifi c examples of confi guration of areas of geographic names ending in *-any/*-jany and *-itji (Charts 1, 2), which are connected with patrimonial and collective structure of society. It is found out that location of objects of geographic names ending in *-any/*-jany and *-itji (Charts 1, 2) in the earliest period (before XIV century) mainly coincides with the area of Upper and Middle Podnisterya, Volyn and Kyiv-Chernihiv centers. These territories were convenient for living (developed water supply system, fertile soils, natural protection from enemies, etc.) and, as archeological evidence shows, fi rst of all populated by Slavs. The article demonstrates that areal onomastic has great possibilities for using its data for development of ethnology. Diachronic and synchronic areas of onyms of all types in one way or another can confi rm or deny ethnographic principles, conclusions etc.

The Kuril Islands stretch southwest from Kamchatka, Russia, to Hokkaido, Japan and separate the Sea of Okhotsk from the northern Pacific Ocean. A series of transgressions and regressions linked to variations in climatically affected global ice volume are among the most important drivers of Holocene environmental changes in the region. Despite a long research history, reconstructions of the Holocene palaeoenvironment are sparse with inconsistent interpretations, arising from insufficient dating control, different temporal resolutions, and specific local geographical features, such as high tectonic activity and the isolated nature of the area. We have investigated a 550 cm lake sediment section from Iturup Island, the largest among the Kuril Islands. The 6600 year old sediment section was studied using sedimentological, geochemical, chironomid, diatom, and pollen analyses to reconstruct environmental and climatic changes and sea level fluctuations (transgression – regression stages). During the warm late phase of the Middle Holocene (6600–4400 cal BP) an open bay or lagoon with shallow overgrown littorals existed at the sampling site. The cooling between 5600 and 4400 cal BP can be correlated with Neoglacial cooling. The cool period between 4200 and 3200 cal BP was a transition towards the formation of a freshwater lagoon and can be related to a decline of the Japan Late Jomon transgression (Sakaguchi, 1983). Between 3200 and 2800 cal BP the lagoon separated from the marine environment in response to a further sea level decrease during the Japan Latest Jomon cold stage and regression. The following increase in the share of broad-leaved pollen indicated a slight warming (Yayoi transition stage) that was interrupted by a short-term cooling spell between 1500 and 1400 cal BP (cold Japan Kofun stage). The period between ca 1100 and 800 cal BP can be related to the European Medieval Climate Anomaly (MCA) or relatively dry Japan Nara-Heian-Kamakura warm stage. The Little Ice Age cooling and Edo regression were evident after ca 800 cal BP. Modern warming however is not well seen in the investigated core.

The region around the coastal Chennai area, India, is drained by three major rivers that rise from the remnants of the Eastern Ghats and receive dominantly the northeast rains. These rivers meander short distances, deposit sediments into the Bay of Bengal and preserve signatures of past phases of sedimentation and incision. In this study, detailed mapping using satellite imageries and extensive field work, logging of the river cliff bank sections was supported by sediment texture and structure and optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) dates. The main objective of this study was to infer the major periods of aggradation and incision in coastal drainage basins receiving dominantly the northeast rains. Integration of all the earlier available dated alluvial sequences (14C ages) and the present study OSL dates reveal that a major period of sedimentation occurred during the early Holocene (9 to 8.3 ka), mid Holocene (7.6–5.5 ka) and late Holocene to recent (2.4 and 1.6 ka, 0.9–0.6 ka and around 0.2 ka) periods. The Koratallaiyar river has preserved older middle Holocene terraces. Younger ages of the south easterly and east flowing rivers such as the Palar and the Coovum signify that they have incised and eroded to the present riverbed levels by catastrophic floods during the late Holocene period. This has resulted in an imbalance between sediment supply and sediment transporting power thus laterally stacking sediments rather than vertically.

This paper presents a summary of work undertaken by the authors and their teams on a series of Qe'an (plural of Qa’), in the Badia of eastern Jordan. These basins are foci for settlement in the region, with the sites described here (Shubayqa, Wisad and the Qa’ Qattafi) edged by archaeological sites dating from the late Epipalaeolithic (ca. 14,500 - 11,600 cal BP) and the Neolithic (ca. 11,700 - 6100 cal BP), and in areas still used by people today as seasonal wetlands for watering animals and growing cereal. We assess here the potential for the Qe'an sediments to provide what would be rare continuous palaeoenvironmental records for this part of SW Asia.\ud \ud The paper presents the first dates from the Qe'an of this region and the outline sedimentology. Much of the fill is of Holocene age, which leads to discussion of climate and landscape change over the last 15,000 years, particularly due to the close geographical relationship between these basins and archaeology. Our optically stimulated luminescence and radiocarbon dating of the basin fill suggests that there was significantly more space in the landscape for water storage in the early Holocene, which may have therefore provided this resource for people and their livestock or game for a longer duration each year than that seen today. Linked to this are hypotheses of a more vegetated landscape during this time period. Given the environmentally marginal nature of our study area subtle changes in landscape and/or climate, and human exploitation of these resources, could have led to significant, and likely detrimental for its inhabitants, environmental impacts for the region, such as desertification. Our data are suggestive of desertification occurring, and sets up a clear hypothesis for testing by future work in the region.

The considerable intensification of human activity in the second and first centuries BC in Central Europe was related to the sudden appearance of a network of large fortified towns, which are known as oppida. Bibracte was one of the most important oppida in France, but knowledge about the evolution of its hinterland is still incomplete. This article addresses the evolution of the landscape surrounding this oppidum. Our research was based on a study of sedimentary profiles sampled around the archaeological site and examined by physical, geochemical and palaeoecological analyses. Sediment sequences indicate that the earliest human-induced erosion associated with geomorphological change occurred in the 4th–1st century BC. Geochemical results indicate ancient mining and metallurgy in the catchment during the same time. Palaeoecological proxies from the same period point to a mosaic of an open cultural landscape with locally suppressed forest vegetation and prevailing pastoralism. Anthropogenic impact resurged in the 11th–13th centuries AD and was associated with livestock grazing and rye (Secale cereale) cultivation. Thereafter, the reconstructed human impact from the 15th century AD onwards was probably related to forest management focused on timber floating as well as to the cultivation of chestnut (Castanea sativa) and hemp (Cannabis sativa).

Sites identified as the Early Upper Palaeolithic (EUP or transitional industries) in Central Europe (CE) have become subject to extensive discussion on the possible interactions between anatomically modern humans and indigenous human species which inhabited the area in the Marine Isotopic Stage 3 (MIS 3, 50–35 ka BP). An open-air site Dzierzyslaw 1 (SW Poland), known for nearly a hundred years, played a crucial role in envisaging scenarios associated with the development and adaptation of the EUP society. In the late 20th c., due to the excavations in the southern part of the site, it was given status of a multicultural site, with artefacts assigned to the Micoquian, Bohunician and Szeletian culture. This paper presents the findings of the multi-faceted revision of this site. We present the results of field work and chronometric analyses based on a new set of samples and archaeological study of archive records. The use of optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) showed that all the sediments of the site should be assigned to the Plenivistulian (MIS 4/3 and MIS 2). The new chronometric assessment indicates the absence of deposits corresponding to the transitional industries' time window. The sedimentological data integrating with spatial distribution of finds and raw material variation as well as state of preservation and typo-technological features of lithic artefacts indicate that the inventory represents a compilation of the late Middle Palaeolithic (MP, Micoquian) and classical Upper Palaeolithic industries (Aurignacian or Gravettian) with very few pieces corresponding with indeterminate EUP industry. The revision throws a light on the situation in the Moravian Gate and areas north of the Carpathians and Sudetes. The results suggest that sites from the late MP are more numerous than those from the EUP. It seems that the over-representation may result from a long time of accumulation during the MP period. It cannot be excluded that the small number of EUP sites reflects a marginal role of the area north of the Sudetes and Carpathians in the human occupation system of that time.

Bird bones are rare finds in Bronze Age excavations in Greece, though, the presence of bird representations in art of the same period is remarkable. This paper examines this paradox from a zooarchaeological perspective. It records and presents the osteological evidence for bird exploitation by Bronze Age communities in Greece and examines the characteristics of the bird bone assemblages, emphasizing the need for nuance and methodological rigor in interpreting these data. This evidence is then viewed against the contemporary birds’ representations record from the same area. From such a comparative approach, a number of similarities and differences emerge regarding the intensity of human-bird interactions, the preferred bird types or the significance of particular types of birds across the study area. Further study of these discrepancies may offer a better understanding of the role of birds in Bronze Age Aegean.

This paper examines archaeological bird bones from Viljandi – one of the strongest centres in prehistoric and medieval Estonia – and covers material from the Late Iron Age to Early Modern Period, c. 950–1700. Over 5000 bird bones were analysed in this study. Our main aim was to explore the role of birds in people's diet and its relevance to social status, but also to explore the birds' habitats and environmental background, including commensalism and seasonal occurrence. This study highlighted differences between the four areas of Viljandi – the prehistoric rural settlement, historic castle, town, and suburb. We discuss diachronic trends in the utilisation of birds in these areas, largely determined by the 13th century Baltic Crusades and the transition from the Prehistoric to the Middle Ages, but also by population expansion and the social divergence that followed. In Prehistory, we witnessed more chicken exploitation, while wild birds seem to have played a smaller role. In the Historic Period, on the contrary, the utilised species are more diverse – probably to manifest social status. The main use of birds was for meat, eggs, and other products. Some species might have been used for hawking.

Routine quarrying activity at the Nesher-Ramla Quarry, in the Judean Lowlands, Israel, has recently exposed a new Early Holocene archaeological site located in a small natural sinkhole, one of many dolines scattered in the area, dated to the Early Pre-Pottery Neolithic B (EPPNB). It is the first site of this period to be uncovered in the narrow strip of land between the Judean Mts. and the coastal plain. This site, dubbed NRQN, contains lithic artifacts, groundstone tools, shells and beads as well as botanical and faunal remains. Here we combine data from a series of studies on the site's stratigraphy and radiometric dating, paleoenvironment, sediments and material culture, with the aim of understanding the role of the site in the EPPNB sphere. Various human activities took place in or immediately adjacent to the sinkhole, predominantly domestic in nature, including stone-tool making and food consumption. However, some of the sediments deep within the sinkhole underwent intense in situ combustion, possibly associated with episodes of lime-plaster production. The filling of the sinkhole appears to have occurred rapidly, not exceeding a few hundred years (ca. 10,500–10,300 cal. BP) and was driven by both geogenic and anthropogenic sedimentation processes. Good preservation of microvertebrate, macrovertebrae, short-lived plants and wood remains at the site, provides a unique opportunity to study the environmental characteristics of this geographical area during the Early Holocene, which appears to have been of an open grassy landscape with patchy Mediterranean forest, resembling the current environmental conditions. Studying the characteristics of Early Holocene human activity at the site, its paleoenvironment, and the site formation mechanisms, also provides useful comparisons with the nearby NRQ Middle Paleolithic site (this issue).

We have used Mann-Kendall trend test and Sen’s slope estimator method to find out significant changes in extreme climate indices for daily temperature as well as precipitation over the period 1979 to 2020 in Cherrapunji. In the present study, a total of 24 precipitation and temperature based extreme climate indices were calculated using RClimDex v 1.9-3. Among 24 indices, 7 were derived from number of days above nn mm rainfall (Rnn) according to Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) convention and the rest were in accordance with the Expert Team on Climate Change Detection and Indices (ETCCDI). It was observed that, among all the indices, consecutive dry days (CDD), summer days (SU25) and very light rainfall (VLR) days increased significantly with 0.54, 1.58 and 0.14 days/year respectively, while only consecutive wet days (CWD) decreased significantly with 0.36 days/year. A slight negative trend was also observed in case of tropical nights (TR20) and among the other precipitation indices as well. Again, the indices associated with daily maximum temperature increased significantly with annual change of 0.06 to 0.07 ⁰C/year. And for indices associated with daily minimum temperature, almost no change or a slight negative change was observed, except a significant positive trend in February and significant negative trend in November for TNN only. The analysis reveals that some of the extreme climate indices which explains the climatic conditions of Cherrapunji has changed a lot over the period of 42 years and if this trend continues then Cherrapunji will be under threat when it comes to climate change.

Located in Baoding, northern China’s Hebei Province, the Daqing River Basin faces a nonnegligible problem: the prevention and control of ice damage in the South-to-North Water Diversion Project (SNWDP) during the ice period. This paper sorts out the observation data on the ice conditions in river sections of the Daqing River Basin in winter, 1994–1997, and calculates the roughness of the water transmission sections, through mathematical calculation and inverse computation. On this basis, the authors analyzed the influence of ice caps on the flow capacity of river channel, and discussed the effects of water level variation on ice cap stability. The results show that, during the ice period, the ice caps in the upstream of the water transmission channel in the river basin are rougher than those in the downstream. In the same river section, the ice caps are rougher in the initial phase than the late phase. At the same water level, the flow capacity of different sections reduces by 40–61% under ice caps. For the entire river channel, the ice caps lower the flow capacity by 40–52%. The water level variation has a huge influence of ice cap stability. During the ice period, the flow should be maintained stable to transmit water under ice caps. This helps to stabilize water level, ensure the continuity and completeness of ice caps, and improve the water transmission efficiency in the ice period.

This paper presents an overview of the results obtained by collaborative use of integrative multidisciplinary investigation of a highly unique geological section discovered in the south-eastern part of the Gulf of Finland. The main aim of this study is to identify the Late Pleistocene palaeoenvironmental and palaeoclimatic changes in the study area during one of the most controversial periods in the Late Pleistocene history, which is the MIS 5. Our approach to achieving the goal is based on the investigation of feldspar-based infrared optically stimulated luminescence (IR-OSL) dated records of pollen-induced palaeoclimate and palaeoenvironmental proxies. Palynological analysis and IR-OSL dates of 29 samples for the first time produced a detailed, characterised and dated sequence of palynological zones M6 to M8 ranging from ca. 94 ka to ca. 70 ka and made it possible to determine the chronological sequence of climate changes in this interval. Representative pollen spectra from 69 samples provided convincing evidence of a warm interval of interglacial rank at least during the latter half of MIS 5. The data obtained in the present study from well-preserved deposits of the second half of MIS 5 provided a novel insight into the palaenvironmental conditions during this period. These results seem to contradict the widely held view according to which the last interglacial stage with the climate conditions similar or warmer than today corresponds to only a small part of marine isotope stage (MIS) 5 of the deep-sea stratigraphy, i.e. MISs 5e lasting ca. 11 ka, and the period from 100 ka to 80 ka is attributed to an Early Weichselian glaciation, which in Northern Eurasia reached its maximum at about 90 ka. However, the findings obtained during the present study are also convincingly confirmed by those of our previous long-term investigations of warm climate-related shell-bearing deposits of various origins from Northern Eurasia including climatically highly sensitive Eurasian Arctic palaeo-shelf area. These results indicated that the overwhelming majority of the warm climate-related dates (ca. 82%) is also concentrated in the latter half of MIS 5 in the time range between 110 ka and 70 ka.

Among braided rivers developed on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau of China at very high elevations (>3,500 m), the middle and lower reaches of the Lhasa River have been affected by comprehensive human activities mainly involving dam construction, urbanization, farming, afforestation, and mining. In the current study, the impacts of these human activities on hydrology and morphology of the four braided reaches downstream of a cascaded of two dams are investigated. The study period was divided into 1985–2006 (P1), 2006–2013 (P2), and 2013–2019 (P3), representing the natural and changed flow regimes by dams. Using available daily discharge data at two stations within the four braided reaches, dam-induced hydrological alteration was analyzed based on the indicators of hydrologic alteration and range of variability approach and key discharge proxies were calculated. Remotely sensed images also were selected in the three periods and morphological metrics extracted from them were compared for the four reaches among these periods. Attenuated hydrological regimes were found for only two reaches. The total channel width (Wc) and braiding intensity (BIt) followed different temporal trends among the four reaches. Annual average shift rates of the main channel in the four reaches were higher in the short (P2–P3) than in the long (P1–P2 and P1–P3) periods. The longitudinal changes of Wc and the number of channels did not have any identifiable trend among the four reaches. By linking the morphological changes to quantified spatial and temporal patterns of various human activities, it was found that (1) the two dams had insignificant impact on channel morphology, suggesting that the studied braided river might have a short relaxation time and (2) the evolutional trajectories of morphological changes in most of the four reaches were similar, suggesting that temporal trends of morphological changes due to complex human activities are not affected by the different physiographic settings of the reaches. Continuous exploitation of the valley area requires comprehensive river management strategies for coordinating various human activities.

The COVID-19 lockdown had a large impact on anthropogenic emissions of air pollutants and particularly on nitrogen dioxide (NO2). While the overall NO2 decline over some large cities is well-established, understanding the details remains a challenge since multiple source categories contribute. In this study, a new method of isolation of three components (background NO2, NO2 from urban sources, and NO2 from industrial point sources) is applied to estimate the impact of the COVID-19 lockdown on each of them. The approach is based on fitting satellite data by a statistical model with empirical plume dispersion functions driven by a meteorological reanalysis. Population density and surface elevation data as well as coordinates of industrial sources were used in the analysis. The tropospheric NO2 vertical column density (VCD) values measured by the Tropospheric Monitoring Instrument (TROPOMI) on board the Sentinel-5 Precursor over 261 urban areas for the period from 16 March to 15 June 2020 were compared with the average VCD values for the same period in 2018 and 2019. While the background NO2 component remained almost unchanged, the urban NO2 component declined by −18 % to −28 % over most regions. India, South America, and a part of Europe (particularly, Italy, France, and Spain) demonstrated a −40 % to −50 % urban emission decline. In contrast, the decline over urban areas in China, where the lockdown was over during the analysed period, was, on average, only -4.4±8 %. Emissions from large industrial sources in the analysed urban areas varied greatly from region to region from -4.8±6 % for China to -40±10 % for India. Estimated changes in urban emissions are correlated with changes in Google mobility data (the correlation coefficient is 0.62) confirming that changes in traffic were one of the key elements in the decline in urban NO2 emissions. No correlation was found between changes in background NO2 and Google mobility data. On the global scale, the background and urban components were remarkably stable in 2018, 2019, and 2021, with averages of all analysed areas all being within ±2.5 % and suggesting that there were no substantial drifts or shifts in TROPOMI data. The 2020 data are clearly an outlier: in 2020, the mean background component for all analysed areas (without China) was -6.0%±1.2 % and the mean urban component was -26.7±2.6 % or 20σ below the baseline level from the other years.

Over the Quaternary, ice volume variations are “paced” by astronomy. However, the precise way in which the astronomical parameters influence the glacial–interglacial cycles is not clear. The origin of the 100 kyr cycles over the last 1 million years and of the switch from 40 to 100 kyr cycles over the Mid-Pleistocene Transition (MPT) remain largely unexplained. By representing the climate system as oscillating between two states, glaciation and deglaciation, switching once glaciation and deglaciation thresholds are crossed, the main features of the ice volume record can be reproduced (Parrenin and Paillard, 2012). However, previous studies have only focused on the use of a single summer insolation as input. Here, we use a simple conceptual model to test and discuss the influence of the use of different summer insolation forcings, having different contributions from precession and obliquity, on the model results. We show that some features are robust. Specifically, to be able to reproduce the frequency shift over the MPT, while having all other model parameters fixed, the deglaciation threshold needs to increase over time, independently of the summer insolation used as input. The quality of the model–data agreement however depends on the chosen type of summer insolation and time period considered.

This paper presents the first insight into the interpretation of the wood charcoal from the Holocene layers of Wonderwerk Cave. Situated in the Northern Cape Province in the arid interior of South Africa, the site provides a unique and valuable chronological record of past environmental fluctuations and responding human behavioural adaptations spanning the last two million years. The Holocene strata have been dated to cover the last 12.5 ka cal BP years, but exclude the last 100 years because of contamination. A sizeable amount of charcoal was recovered from these strata and remnants have been identified, described and the species composition amongst the strata compared. Most identified species are those that tolerate hot, dry conditions, signalling an arid trend during the Holocene. Comparison with present day species distributions suggests an eastwards shift in modern vegetation. The charcoal data also indicate that during the mid Holocene there was a wetter period from 6.2 to 4.5 ka cal BP, coinciding with stratum 4a.

The present study provides a synoptic characterization of South Atlantic Convergence Zone (SACZ) episodes that caused heavy rainfall events (HRE) in the city of Rio de Janeiro (CRJ) between 2006 and 2016. A total of 77 SACZ episodes were identified in the CRJ (SCRJ), which represented 81% of the total SACZ events in Brazil. At least one day of HRE during the SACZ period (SHRE) was found in 37 SCRJ episodes, representing almost half (48%) of the SACZ events in the CRJ. In 68.6% of these cases, the heavy rainfall occurred on the first two days of the SHRE period. The mean synoptic pattern of SHRE showed a cold front in the Atlantic Ocean connected with a low-pressure system located near the coast of Rio de Janeiro state (RJ). The 850 hPa specific humidity showed a dipole pattern with positive anomalies in southeastern Brazil and negative anomalies in southern Brazil since the day before the occurrence of SHRE. An anomalous upper-level ridge in southeastern Brazil was relevant to intensifying the heavy rainfall in the CRJ. The synoptic classification showed four main surface synoptic patterns associated with SHRE. The two most frequent patterns were associated with a cold front close to the coast of RJ, and the other two were related to the presence of an anticyclone with blocking characteristics and to the presence of a weak extratropical cyclone near the coast of RJ.

The Drakensberg-Maloti has been a region of great hydrological importance for thousands of years, captured in the archaeological record as a region of refuge under dry conditions, and in recent decades supplying adjacent South Africa with water through the Lesotho Highlands Water Scheme. This is due in large part to its high amounts of orographically induced rainfall. The high amounts of rainfall mean the area lends itself well to the preservation of multiple proxies in the region's many wetlands, a very valuable resource for palaeoecological studies in the generally dry southern Africa. However, there have been few quantitative palaeoclimatic studies taking advantage of this, and none using multiple sites within the Drakensberg-Maloti region. This study represents the first attempt at such a regional synthesis. We utilised all published pollen records from the area to produce a dataset from which the standard Modern Analogue Technique was performed to reconstruct mean temperature of the warmest month, mean annual precipitation, mean winter precipitation and an annual climatic moisture index for the past 8000 years. The moisture index showed a very low amount of variation, most likely due to the low amount of variation in the modern climate data associated with the sites in the modern calibration dataset, being so near the saturation point of this index. We found evidence for a cool, wet period at around 2 cal ka BP, a period that has been identified in records from across South Africa as a Neoglacial, and which is consistent with diatom and sedimentary records from the Drakensberg-Maloti.

Ntsikeni wetland is one of the largest high-altitude wetlands in southern Africa (~1795 m asl) located in the Swartberg area of the foothills of the Maloti-Drakensberg, southern Africa. The site has been designated a Ramsar Wetland of International Importance which, with limited anthropogenic influence, renders it ideal for palaeoenvironmental investigation. This study presents a pollen-derived palaeoenvironmental reconstruction for Ntsikeni, spanning the period ~25,100–650 cal BP, one of the longest, continuous records for southern Africa. The record commences with evidence of coldest conditions consistent with the peak of the Last Glacial Maximum. This is followed by progressive climatic amelioration, culminating in a warm, moist period from ~7500 to 5500 cal BP. Pronounced cold periods at ~13,500 cal BP, ~8500 cal BP and ~4000 cal BP are broadly consistent with coeval global scale temperature fluctuations. Two distinct dry events are inferred from the pollen record, spanning ~19,600–18,000 and ~6500-4900 cal BP. Wet events occur more frequently throughout the record, resulting in fluctuations in moisture availability, and are inferred to result in the expansion and contraction of the wetland extent similar to those recorded in the palaeorecords of the Lesotho Highlands. The Ntsikeni record provides a longer-term temporal framework with which the shorter sequences for adjacent sites in the Maloti-Drakensberg can be compared, and supports evidence for the significance of the rugged topography in inducing lags in moisture transitions.

This study aims to determine the palaeoenvironmental characteristics and activity patterns of Obrovac-type archaeological sites in Western Serbia, dated to the Late Neolithic/Early Eneolithic period, ∼5th millennium BC. These mound-like sites, enclosed by a wide ditch, that are not known in other parts of the central Balkan area, have long intrigued archaeologists investigating their origin and function over the last few decades. In this study, for the first time, organic-geochemical analysis of paleosol samples from the Obrovac-type sites was applied with the aim of palaeoenvironmental reconstruction. Additionally, organic carbon content and anion analysis of 58 subsoil samples from these settlements were performed to determine the use of space and activity zones. The analysis of biomarkers from selected sites suggests significant plant biodiversity in the Macva region during the Late Neolithic/Early Eneolithic. Distribution of n-alkanes with the maximum at n-C25 and predominance of C30 hop-22(29)-ene among hopanoids in samples from Obrovac type-sites indisputably indicates that macrophytes are a dominant source of organic matter, implying a marshy and floodplain depositional environment. On the other side, a strong signal of long-chain n-alkanes indicates the input of terrestrial plants into the precursor biomass, confirming that this environment was habitable for the first settlers in this region. Anion-based analysis delineates certain activity zones, demonstrating that Obrovac type-sites manifest rather complex spatial behavior despite their relatively small size and available space.

Many of the world’s beaches are embayed, but while a large body of work addresses the geomorphology of pocket beaches in oceanic settings, little is known about urban analogs, especially within the Great Lakes of North America. Groins and jetties shelter these systems from direct interaction with littoral processes, which elsewhere can influence how changes in lake level, winter-ice cover, and wave climate impact beach evolution. We address the direct controls of these forcing parameters on beach morphodynamics over a 33-yr period at North Point Beach, which is confined to an engineered ‘container’ along Lake Michigan’s wave-dominated SW margin. Analysis of near-annual beach change suggests lake-level change is the dominant geomorphic driver over inter-annual to decadal timeframes, with winter ice playing a secondary role. Pocket-beach shoreline positions were found to be unreliable indicators of sand volumetric changes. Lake-level rise facilitated shoreline retreat and overwash-induced beach accretion while high lake levels created the accommodation for additional sands to enter the embayment. This is important for coastal managers to consider when developing mitigation strategies for ongoing lake-level fluctuations and anticipated regional climate impacts. This foundational assessment has implications for embayed beaches of the greater Chicago coastal margin (n > 20), where many other site-specific variables (e.g., groin orientations and shoreline aspect) may factor into nearshore and onshore beach morphodynamics. Continued research into urban pocket beaches of the Great Lakes stands to offer useful information on the impacts of littoral fragmentation on coastal sediment routing during different lake-level phases and degrees of littoral interconnectivity.

Recent research on Later Stone Age (LSA) San rock art in southern Africa has unveiled some of the paint recipes the artists employed. However, these discoveries still need to be linked to human activities in or near the rock shelters where the paintings were made. In this paper, we report characterization and dating results from the catchment of the Metolong Dam, Phuthiatsana Valley, Lesotho. A total of 92 rock painting samples, six grindstones with traces of colouring materials from an excavated context, and 17 potential raw colouring materials were studied. We identified three previously unreported ingredients used by the artists: manganese oxides, calcined bones, and soot. Grindstones are stained with the same raw materials that the painters used. We propose that one of them may have served to prepare the red pigment used to make a human figure and a bichrome eland at Ha Makotoko, but direct links remain difficult to establish with certainty. The potential colouring materials in the valley are red clays, white clays (kaolinite and illite-or-montmorillonite), and gypsum, three compounds used as paints by the artists. Tests conducted to verify their suitability for paintings show these materials may have been ground, but settling (after pre-grinding) offers a quicker and easier way to obtain a fine powder as observed in the paints. Finally, 12 AMS dates provide an initial framework for studying the changing use of paint recipes in the Phuthiatsana Valley over time. Charcoal appears to have been employed over a period of at least 3000 years and carbon black for at least 2000 years, with soot seemingly used only before 2000 cal. BP. This study is currently the largest characterization and dating study of LSA rock art in southern Africa and shows the potential that such combined investigations offer for linking excavated and parietal components of the region's hunter-gatherer archaeological record.

This work analyze the technological management of raw materials and the mobility strategy of the human groups that occupied during the mid-Holocene (ca. 8000-3000 BP) the eastern Tandilia mountain range, and discuss them inside of settlement systems context for the southeastern Pampean region. The lithic study results of 13 occupations excavated in caves and rockshelters shows that mobility strategies in Tandilia mountain ranges were closer to collector models, where logistical groups moved into mountain range valleys in search of natural resources. We can recognize different strategies for raw material procurement: the immediately available rocks were obtained through direct access on daily foraging trips; the regional rocks were obtained through logistical displacements, residential movements and embedded strategies; and the access to the long distance rocks was through exchange between neighboring populations. Besides, during ca. 7000 to 5000 cal BP an increased use of immediately available raw materials and a high archaeological signal was detected. This scenario can be linked with an increased environmental aridity episode where human groups occupied with most intensity the Tandilia mountain valleys due to the greater availability of the water resources. Finally, this work provides new data suggesting that during this period in the southeastern Pampean region context, the hunter-gatherer groups combined forager and collector strategies to take advantage of the natural resources of the landscape with diverse environments (coastline, grassland plains, dunes field and mountain ranges).

In the southern part of Kyushu Island in southern Japan and the small islands further south the earliest pottery is found beneath the Satsuma tephra, which has been well dated to ca. 12,800 cal BP. Here we focus on Incipient Jomon pottery, 14,000/13,500–12,800 cal BP, from the Sankakuyama I site on Tanegashima Island. Previous visual analysis of the fabrics suggested that about half of the vessels were not locally made. In this study, we conducted both ceramic and raw material petrography and an electron microprobe study on samples of pottery. Our results indicate that pottery was mainly produced in situ, away from the coast, but that there is some clear non-local material which came from either Yakushima Island or Kyushu Island proper. Yakushima has no reported Incipient Jomon sites. There should be undiscovered sites on Yakushima if pottery circulated from there rather than Sankakuyama I residents embedding production in their logistical moves on Yakushima. Minor signatures of non-local geology in locally produced pottery are probably the result of volcanic eruptions and sea currents. Pottery production began when Tanegashima was disconnected from Kyushu and probably about to be separated from Yakushima. During the Incipient Jomon period, Tanegashima had become isolated. We conclude that pottery producers were hunter-gatherers who were mainly sedentary, living in a mild environmental with ecotone properties. They occasionally engaged in costly communication and exchange, which may have involved transporting pottery by watercraft and on foot, to buffer risks. Our study is among the first to investigate the pottery economy of the late Pleistocene and the decisions made by its producers and users in response to environmental variability and change. The research contributes to the debate on the origins of pottery and the Upper Paleolithic to Neolithic transition.

The study aims to find out the formation period of fault traps near faults in petroliferous basins, based on an analysis of the formation period of fault lateral sealing and related influential factors. A method to calculate the formation period of fault lateral sealing (i.e. the time when displacement pressure of fault rock is equal to that of reservoir rock in fault wall with hydrocarbon migration) is established by comparing the relationship between displacement pressure and time for fault rock and reservoir rock. This method is then applied to the study on reservoirs in the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd members of Dongying Formation (E3d1, E3d2 and E3d3) in terms of formation period of lateral sealing of F3 fault crossing the three reservoirs in the No.5 structure of Nanpu Sag in Bohai Bay Basin. The results indicate that the formation period of the lateral sealing in the studied reservoirs can date from 7.1 Ma, 7.4 Ma and 9.2 Ma respectively, all prior to the hydrocarbon accumulation period (about 2.58 Ma). Hence, it can be concluded that these reservoirs are favorable for the accumulation and preservation of hydrocarbons generated from the underlying source rock E3s3, and the method proposed is feasible in calculating the formation period of fault lateral sealing.

The present study addresses the impacts of reduced anthropogenic activities during the lockdown period of COVID-19 pandemic on the aerosol concentration, treated as heat absorbing agent, and on the related atmospheric processes, using ground-based and spaceborne measurements over a highly polluted Indian metropolis, Kolkata The investigation reveals that reduced aerosol concentrations during the pre-monsoon of 2020, when the lockdown was implemented, decreased atmospheric instability as indicated by low values of the convective available potential energy (CAPE) This hindered the abundance of aerosols above the atmospheric boundary layer Also, micro rain radar (MRR) observations showed a significant reduction of convective precipitation occurrences over Kolkata during this period The back trajectory analysis has revealed the absence of continental component toward the wind clusters associated with rain occurrences during pre-monsoon 2020 This resulted in increased occurrences of stratiform rain events during the pre-monsoon of 2020 compared to the same period of previous years IEEE

“Nderit Ware,” a type of pottery famous in eastern Africa for its remarkably intricate basket-like bowls, is associated with evidence for the region's earliest pastoralism during a time period known as the Pastoral Neolithic (PN, c. 5000-1200 cal BP). This paper reviews the changing ways archaeologists have conceptualized “Nderit” pottery over the past eighty years. The “Nderit” ware type was defined in relation to initial finds in central Kenya, decades before archaeologists discovered Nderit had greater antiquity as a technology/artistic tradition in northwest Kenya's Turkana Basin. Ceramic assemblages from pillar sites surrounding Lake Turkana – including Lothagam North (GeJi9) and Jarigole (GbJj1) – reveal a more variable and complex history of ceramic production and use than previously recognized. Nderit's first known production and use is associated with the region's earliest food producers, mobile pastoralists establishing themselves around a dramatically shrinking Lake Turkana. These findings carry important implications for reconstructing the cultural history and material lives of early herding groups moving within and beyond the Turkana Basin, and expand our frame of reference for understanding the origins of pottery production by mobile, small-scale groups worldwide.

New compound-specific isotope analyses of a sediment core from Laguna Los Mangos in southern Pacific Costa Rica improves understanding of late-Holocene precipitation change in a region with limited paleoprecipitation records that is vulnerable to future climate change. We established paleoprecipitation and paleovegetation records from compound-specific stable hydrogen and carbon isotopic compositions of terrestrially-derived n-alkanes (δ2Halkane and δ13Calkane) to assess paleohydrologic variability and potential linkages to paleoecological change and human activity as revealed by prior analyses of the Los Mangos core. The δ2Halkane values were corrected for isotopic fractionation using pollen counts from the same core. The Los Mangos record extends to 4200 cal yr BP and small increases in δ13C values of C29, +0.6‰, and C31 alkanes, +0.3‰, (δ13CC29, 31) indicate a slight increase in C4 vegetation after initial introduction of maize agriculture to the watershed at ca. 3360 cal yr BP. This slight increase in C4 vegetation is followed by the largest positive carbon isotope excursions in the record, as compared to record averages (δ13CC29 = +3.2‰, δ13CC31 = +5.0‰). Paleohydrologic variability likely influenced vegetation and human activity at Los Mangos. Lake desiccation during the late-Terminal Classic Drought (TCD) resulted in a sedimentary hiatus in the Los Mangos record from ca. 950 to 450 cal yr BP. Positive excursions in comparison to record averages occur for both δ2HC29 and δ2HC31 proxies (δ2HC29 = +25.3 to +13.4‰ and δ2HC31 = +6.5‰) during the middle Little Ice Age (LIA) and indicate drier than average conditions, but there is no evidence of desiccation during this period. Thus, drought conditions during the LIA were apparently not as severe at Los Mangos as during the TCD, possibly because of differing forcing mechanisms for LIA climate that originated, or were more clearly expressed, in the Atlantic basin.

Understanding the regional hydrological response to varying CO2 concentration is critical for cost-benefit analysis of mitigation and adaptation polices in the near future. To characterize summer monsoon rainfall change in East Asia in a changing CO2 pathway, we used the Community Earth System Model (CESM) with 28 ensemble members in which the CO2 concentration increases at a rate of 1% per year until its quadrupling peak, i.e., 1468 ppm (ramp-up period), followed by a decrease of 1% per year until the present-day climate conditions, i.e., 367 ppm (ramp-down period). Although the CO2 concentration change is symmetric in time, the amount of summer rainfall anomaly in East Asia is increased 42% during a ramp-down period than that during a ramp-up period when the two periods of the same CO2 concentration are compared. This asymmetrical rainfall response is mainly due to an enhanced El Nino-like warming pattern as well as its associated increase in the sea surface temperature in the western North Pacific during a ramp-down period. These sea surface temperature patterns enhance the atmospheric teleconnections and the local meridional circulations around East Asia, resulting in more rainfall over East Asia during a ramp-down period. This result implies that the removal of CO2 does not guarantee the return of regional rainfall to the previous climate state with the same CO2 concentration.

Reconstruction of paleotemperatures in loess sequences plays a crucial role in paleoclimate research. Depositional-origin hematite is considered a major contributor to high-field isothermal remanence (HIRM), which is closely related to temperature. However, there is limited knowledge regarding hematite of various origins that contributes to the HIRM in Tibetan Plateau (TP) loess deposits. Here, the variation in and contributions of hematites of various origins to HIRM in the Ganzi loess of the eastern Tibetan Plateau (ETP) and their paleoclimatic significance are investigated in detail. We find that depositional hematite is the main contributor to HIRM in the ETP loess and HIRM can be used as an indicator of temperature variation on the TP. During the interglacial period, the TP dust source became more arid, which was conducive to production of more hematite. During the glacial period, the TP dust source region became colder and drier, which was not conducive to the formation of hematite. The HIRM record shows that the TP temperature has varied with orbital-scale glacial-interglacial changes since the last interglacial period. This was mainly in response to Northern Hemisphere summer insolation. The loess source region in the interior of the TP was warmest during the last interglacial period (MIS 5) and the Holocene. Its coldest period occurred during MIS 2. The climate was relatively mild during MIS 3. This study provides further understanding of environmental changes in the TP.

Coastal lagoons have been providing ecological, economic and cultural benefits for many centuries. Despite their importance, the monitoring of coastal lagoons poses numerous challenges related to their complex environmental processes, their large variability in size and their remote location, inhibiting effective management programmes. This study demonstrates the effectiveness of Sentinel-2 satellites to map highly dynamic morphological and hydrological changes in the Louro lagoon, a small choked lagoon located on the Galician coast (NW Spain). For this purpose, a simple methodology using the Normalised Difference Water Index (NDWI) has been evaluated, which allows to monitor the sand barrier changes and the inlet formation. The results show that the sand barrier's opening and closing might take only a very short period, and the recovery of the lagoon to its full water level can happen in less than a month. Sentinel-2 images also reveal drastic changes in the water level once the sand barrier is broken. A water surface area of 0.24 km2 was estimated on 04/11/ 2019, while this surface was reduced to 0.10 km2 on 04/12/ 2019. Monitoring these changes is critical to understand the different processes ongoing in these valuable environments and making informed decisions for their management and protection.

The first record of the carbonate-hosted Pb-Zn deposits in Turkey dates back to the Roman period. The carbonate-hosted Pb-Zn deposits in Turkey are economically important and found in the Aladaglar - Zamanti Province. Mineral exploration and geological mapping through the utilization of the traditional geological method still remain very challenging in many high terrains (High mountains). In this study, Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer (ASTER) remote sensing data were used for mapping the carbonate-hosted Pb-Zn deposits in the Yahyali region of Turkey. The Band Ratio (BR), Least square fitting methοd (Ls–fit), Band Ratio Color Composite (BRCC), and Principal Cοmpοnent Analysis (PCA) were used tο map the Pb-Zn mineralization zone. The results of this investigation show the spatial distribution of Fe-Mg – OH/CO3, hydroxyl-bearing and iron oxide minerals. Field work and laboratory analysis were carried out to verify the occurrence of alteration zones and highly prospective locations and to confirm the availability of alteration and potential zones of carbonate-hosted Pb-Zn mineralization in the study area. Spatial correlation and distribution were observed between the previous geological map, active and abandoned mines, and the result obtained from the remote sensing data. Different techniques applied to the Aster data image in this study are recommended fοr carbonate-hosted Pb-Zn and lithological mapping in hostile terrains.

Aquifer compaction due to excessive withdrawal of groundwater has led to land subsidence in many regions worldwide. Aquifer-System compaction is a function of the piezometric head, the depth of the total aquifer system and the hydrogeological characteristics of the aquifer. The present work is an attempt to characterize the land subsidence caused due to aquifer system compaction in parts of Mehsana city, Gujarat during two individual study periods of 2007 to 2011 and 2012 to 2017. Studies were undertaken for an observation well for which complete time series piezometric water level data was available for both pre and post-monsoon seasons. Elastic and Inelastic compaction were calculated from the piezometric data. The thickness of the aquifers and confining layers were taken from secondary data sources. The results show that there has been a considerable cumulative subsidence in the region during the period 2007 to 2011 with an average rate of 1.18 cm/yr. which declined to an average rate of 0.68 cm/yr. during 2012–2017. Such studies prove useful for monitoring land deformations due to excessive pumping as well as administration of groundwater resources especially in regions facing heavy declines of ground water.

Studies of the East Asian Neolithic have been conducted for more than a century and many attempts have been made to interpret the functions of prehistoric pottery, particularly the earliest ceramics. The unsophisticated pottery discovered in the Weijiawopu site opens a window for the study of early ceramic function. We conducted plant residue analyses of ceramics from the Weijiawopu Neolithic site; the largest Hongshan Culture settlement in Inner Mongolia, China. The site is thought to belong to the early to middle period of the Hongshan Culture, approximately 6500-5500 cal BP. Based on evidence from starch grains, we identified four main plant resources: 1) cereal grains; 2) Dioscorea plant tubers; 3) beans; and 4) nuts. None of the individual starch grains exhibit surface damage, indicating they did not undergo extensive processing such as grinding or cooking. Hence, we conclude that the pottery samples analyzed derive from food storage containers, indicating one major function of early pottery at the site. Furthermore, wild plants are thought to have been an essential part of the Weijiawopu people's subsistence base, suggesting a mixed economic pattern based upon both domestication activities and hunting-gathering-foraging lifeways.

Incised Neolithic stones are rare in the archaeological record of the southern Levant, with only a handful of examples known from the entire Neolithic period. Structure 2 at the Pre-Pottery Neolithic A site of Zahrat al-Dhra' 2 (ZAD 2) in Jordan has yielded three incised plaques and pebbles, decorated with similar geometric motifs, together with two limestone blanks possibly intended for the production of more incised pieces. The circumstances of these finds, limited to only one of four ZAD 2 dwellings, reinforces a recent idea forwarded by of Eirikh-Rose (2004) which contends that incised Neolithic stones functioned as symbols denoting aspects of identity.

No extensive work has been published to date concerning the cisterns of southern Anatolia. Nor does the recent research present a comprehensive approach especially to the association of cisterns with buildings and open spaces as well as their stylistic features. From this point of view, this paper aims to fill a part of this lacuna by examining the potential role of cisterns located in the Late Antique-Byzantine countryside of southern Anatolia, namely in the areas of Lycia, Pamphylia, Isauria and Cilicia, on the basis of both archaeological and written evidence as well as the author’s observation in the field. In this study, cisterns are evaluated under three main themes. The first presents such basic characteristics of the cisterns as form, material, capacity, decoration, construction techniques and purposes whilst it also examines the water sources and the ways of feedings of the cisterns. The second theme discusses the essential reasons for locating the cisterns at any point of the unstructured spaces of the settlement core such as streets, paths, alleys, public spaces and, of the land situated in the close vicinity of the inhabited area. The last section analyzes the associations of cisterns with churches along with their annexes, houses, olive oil and wine workshops in terms of function and location.

Significant developments in soil erosion research for the period 1950–2000 are reviewed. The main emphasis is on work in western Europe and North America. We highlight work on process studies in splash, rill and gully erosion. Important developments also occurred in monitoring, measuring and modelling erosion, as well as in recording and understanding rates of erosion. We concentrate on cultivated and bare soils, and have included badlands and peatland erosion in our review.

We investigate long-term changes in winter rainfall patterns across the Arabian Peninsula (AP) through an analysis of the Climate Research Unit (CRU) gridded rainfall dataset, and long-term rainfall measurements collected at 39 stations distributed across the AP over the period 1951–2010. We reveal a long-term increase in winter rainfall of about 25–30% over the eastern AP and a long-term decrease of about 10–20% in the southern and northeastern AP. A partial correlation analysis suggests that canonical El Ninos are associated with significant negative winter rainfall anomalies in the southern and southwest AP during the 1951–1980 period. However, the extent of the El Nino-induced rainfall deficit decreased in subsequent decades. In fact, a significant above-average rainfall occurs in recent decades over Ethiopia, southwest Yemen and central AP during canonical El Ninos. Furthermore, positive phases of the Indian Ocean basin mode (IOBM), which lags the canonical ENSO signal by 3–4 months, are linked with significant below-average winter rainfall over the central and northern AP, but only until the 1970 s. We investigated the teleconnections between the variability of AP winter rainfall and various atmospheric parameters from the European Centre for Medium Range Weather Forecasting (ECMWF) twentieth century (ERA-20C) reanalysis. Notably, sub-tropical westerly jet (STJ) shifted southward and intensified over the AP during recent decades. This shift of the STJ favoured an increase in the frequent passage of transients, which contributed to increased winter rainfall over AP. These events anomalously strengthen the upper level westerlies during El Nino Modokis, adding to the recently-strengthened STJ over the AP, thereby further intensifying the transient activity. This large-scale background change likely weakened the impact of canonical El Nino and the IOBM events.

The role of plant foods during the fluted-point period (FPP) of North America is contested. Central to this debate is whether the scarcity of FPP macrobotanical materials stems from poor preservation of archaeological features and the macrobotanical remains they might contain or from the limited use of plants during the FPP. Employing summed probability distributions of radiocarbon date frequencies in northeastern North America, we find that FPP hearths are as common as expected, given the small number of well-dated FPP sites in the region. A second comparison shows that northeastern FPP hearths contain macrobotanical remains at a higher frequency than hearths from a region with better preservation and where small seeds formed a part of the diet. The macrobotanical materials so far recovered from FPP hearths in the Northeast show that plant foods contributed to diets during the FPP but that the plant diet breadth was relatively narrow, consistent with a specialized caribou hunting lifeway.

Walleye (Sander vitreus) is an economically and culturally important species in Lake Erie that has experienced large interannual variability in recruitment. We examined the importance of prey biomass during the larval period to walleye recruitment while also considering the importance of temperature. Using nine years of field data over a 22-year period (1994–2016) for larval walleye and zooplankton, we found that strong recruitment events occurred in years when the biomass (dry µg L-1) of copepods (e.g., calanoids, cyclopoids) was greater during the spring larval period. Conversely, the biomass of cladocerans and mean spring water temperatures were poor predictors of walleye recruitment. Our results highlight the need to consider zooplankton availability during the larval period when seeking to understand the recruitment dynamics of freshwater fish populations such as Lake Erie walleye.

At a certain point in time, there were two central places in central Moravia: an older unfortified central agglomeration near the present-day village of Němčice nad Hanou and a younger oppidum at Staré Hradisko. Each of this centres had its own approach to raw materials, orientation of the socio-economic contacts, and possibly political focus as well. Němčice, being located at one of the main branches of the Amber Road, connected the Middle Danube area from the Mediterranean to the Adriatic; Staré Hradisko eventually expanded these contacts into a systematic trade network, being under the strong influence of the Bohemian region with links to Bavaria. During the LT C2, in addition to the location of the central place, changes took place in terms of material culture and settlement strategies in the region. This was further accentuated in LT D1 by the shift of settlements towards the west, to the vicinity of the oppidum and, at the same time, vacation of the corridor around the Morava River. In an attempt to chronologically assess the settlement pattern, it became evident how important it is to define, as precisely as possible, the dating of individual sites. This was only possible thanks to the detailed and extensive study of the material available (Čižmář 2018). Thanks to precise dating of settlements and classification based on the new chronology, the seemingly illogical group of settlements in central Moravia revealed a distinct settlement network which, in particular during the period contemporary with the oppidum, allows us to see the significant changes in the number of sites and in the orientation of long-distance contacts that were possibly associated with historical events.

Climate influences the amount of wind energy available to transport sand in coastal dune complexes. Wind data from meteorological stations were used to calculate aeolian sand drift potential along the Lake Michigan shore and surrounding region. Data from 11 nearshore stations were used to identify 83 potential aeolian transport events during 2015. All events were associated with the passage of cyclones and anticyclones with the strongest pressure gradients occurring when the lake was between high- and low-pressure centers. There are statistically significant correlations between the positions of cyclones and anticyclones and the orientation of the shores with onshore drift potential. There is enough variability in cyclone and anticyclone tracks to drive aeolian activity on the north, east and south coasts, not all of which can be explained by the regional “prevailing” winds. Wind data from seven airports were used to examine changes in regional drift potential since 1948. Total drift potential decreased over this time, including a decrease of approximately 40% over the period 1961–2019. Trends in directional drift potential are less clear and appear to indicate a decrease in the proportion of onshore drift potential for the east and north shores and an increase for the south shore. This decrease in the ability of winds along Lake Michigan shores to transport sand should contribute to a stabilization of the coastal dunes. Shifts in the tracks of cyclones and anticyclones associated with climate change are anticipated to shift the relative amounts of aeolian activity associated with shores of different orientations.

The theory of plate tectonics is widely accepted by scientists and provides a robust framework with which to describe and predict the behavior of Earth’s rigid outer shell – the lithosphere – in space and time. Expressions of plate tectonic interactions at the Earth’s surface also provide critical insight into the machinations of our planet’s inaccessible interior, and allow postulation about the geological characteristics of other rocky bodies in our solar system and beyond. Formalization of this paradigm occurred at a landmark Penrose conference in 1969, representing the culmination of centuries of study, and our understanding of the “what”, “where”, “why”, and “when” of plate tectonics on Earth has continued to improve since. Here, we summarize the major discoveries that have been made in these fields and present a modern-day holistic model for the geodynamic evolution of the Earth that best accommodates key lines of evidence for its changes over time. Plate tectonics probably began at a global scale during the Mesoarchean (c. 2.9–3.0 Ga), with firm evidence for subduction in older geological terranes accounted for by isolated plate tectonic ‘microcells’ that initiated at the heads of mantle plumes. Such early subduction likely operated at shallow angles and was short-lived, owing to the buoyancy and low rigidity of hotter oceanic lithosphere. A transitional period during the Neoarchean and Paleoproterozoic/Mesoproterozoic was characterized by continued secular cooling of the Earth’s mantle, which reduced the buoyancy of oceanic lithosphere and increased its strength, allowing the angle of subduction at convergent plate margins to gradually steepen. The appearance of rocks during the Neoproterozoic (c. 0.8–0.9 Ga) diagnostic of subduction do not mark the onset of plate tectonics, but simply record the beginning of modern-style cold, deep, and steep subduction that is an end-member state of an earlier, hotter, mobile lid regime

An assemblage of microfossils of moderate diversity, with the remarkable occurrence of ECAP acritarchs, is reported from the Ediacaran Krol ‘A’ (= the Mahi Formation) succession of Lesser Himalaya, India. Microfossils occur in the chert nodules exposed in Solan district, Himachal Pradesh. Two microfossils, Barogophycus symmetricus n. gen. n. sp. and Botominella lineata are new to the well-established Krol assemblage. The paper concentrates predominantly on fossil eukaryotic filamentous and coccoidal micro-organism of simple morphology. The assemblage is dominated by remains of prokaryotic cyanobacteria and demonstrates the diversity achieved by microorganisms at the beginning of the Ediacaran Period in the aftermath of the Marinoan glaciation. Filamentous and coccoidal microorganisms differ in taxonomic composition from the Mesoproterozoic microbiotas. The Krol microfossils assemblage has biostratigraphic potential and usefulness in broadly demarcating the different levels of the Ediacaran strata. Because of the presence of ECAP acritarchs, along with the appearance of other eukaryotic microorganisms of filamentous and coccoidal morphology, the general level of the Krol ‘A’ assemblage is considered as Ediacaran.

Lake ice phenology is regarded as a good proxy for the past and present climates. Long time series passive microwave radiometry data are used to estimate lake ice phenology variations in the Qinghai–Tibet Plateau (QTP), and a contrasting pattern of phenology change trend is found that the time series trend of lake ice freeze-up or break-up time is obviously reversed for lakes in the QTP. The reason for this contrasting trend of lake ice phenology is discussed based on factors such as salinity, water volume change, and air temperature change. Lake ice phenology data are separated based on lake salinity for the climate study: lake ice phenology of lakes with low salinity can be used as air temperature and climate change indicator, whereas lake ice phenology of lakes with high salinity and a low water volume can be used as an indicator of water volume variation under climate change. Correlation analysis of air temperature and the lake ice phenology show that air temperature is the main driving factor behind lake ice phenology variations. The lake ice phenology results suggest overall rising air temperatures during the period 1987–2017 in all regions of the QTP.