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Central Asia is currently a semiarid‐arid region, dominated by the Westerlies. It is important to understand mechanisms of climate and precipitation changes here, as water availability in the region is crucial today and in the future. High‐resolution, absolutely‐dated oxygen isotope (δ18O) records of stalagmites from Kesang Cave characterize a dynamic precipitation history over most of the past 500,000 years. This record demonstrates, for the first time, that climate change in the region exhibits a processional rhythm with abrupt inceptions of low δ18O speleothem growth at times of high Northern Hemisphere summer insolation followed by gradual δ18O increases that track decreases of insolation. These observations and interpretations contrast with the interpretation of nearby, but higher elevation ice core records. The absolutely‐dated caveδ18O shifts can be used to correlate the regional climate variability by providing chronological marks. Combined with other paleoclimate records, the Kesang observations suggest that possible incursions of Asian summer monsoon rainfall or related moisture into the Kesang site and/or adjacent areas during the high insolation times may play an important role in changing orbital‐scale hydrology of the region. Based on our record, arid climate will prevail in this region for the next several millennia, providing that anthropogenic effects do not supersede natural processes. Key Points Speleothem records characterize 500 ka precipitation history in Central Asia Climatic patterns in the Westerlies region are dominated by a precession rhythm Asian Monsoon incursions may explain the hydrological change on precession scale

Three states of water circulation in the Azov Sea based on previous studies and the results of studies in 2023–2024 are described. Pronounced diurnal radiational tides are typical for warm, windless times of the year, when breeze winds develop. Seiche currents often mix with tidal currents; therefore, it is difficult to observe the tidal structure in its pure form using current profiling. With fluctuations in wind parameters, the seiches of the Sea of Azov change rapidly both depending on the observation area and on the mode structure according to the cascade of scales. The strongest positive and negative water setups are inextricably bound up with the single-node mode, the currents of which are able to change the shapes of coastal accumulative bodies, such as beaches and spits, during one cycle. The features of such a system of currents are still unclear. The third state is transitional, which is observed when the wind intensifies.

Over the seventy-year period of the Don River valley flood control with the absence of a water climatic cycle, irreversible geomorphological and biogeocenotic transformations occurred in the drainage basin. As a result of persistent avalanche sedimentation, the Don delta and the Taganrog Bay seaside became shallow. During strong east winds, the seabed near the city of Taganrog and the settlements of Port-Katon and Zaimo-Obryv is dried out over a distance of 5–10 km or more. The unique phenomenon of carp and sazan activity and accumulation in the Don River delta was noted in winter of 2023–2024. Clearly abnormal mass accumulations of valuable commercial species and their early maturation could be related to a range of factors provoked by the increased water discharge from the Tsimlyansk Reservoir. The water flow with fish along the Krivoe and Svinoe delta arms, at an extreme water negative setup, came up against a sandbar, which reflects the Don River shallowing after 1952.

Mudstones from the Argiles de Châtillon Formation exposed in the Boulonnais region of Northern France represent a proximal lateral equivalent of the organic-rich Kimmeridge Clay Formation. The Argiles de Châtillon Formation is composed of two subunits that straddle the Kimmeridgian–Tithonian boundary. Each subunit contains an organic-rich interval. The two conspicuous organic-rich intervals have been linked to either periods of high sea level or greenhouse warming. Here, we use palynology to further understand climate and environmental mechanisms that drove organic matter enrichment. We use bulk organic carbon isotope records (δ13Corg) to correlate the Boulonnais sections with those of the Kimmeridge Clay Formation. The palynological results suggest that the stratigraphically lower organic-rich interval (Kimmeridgian) was deposited under suboxic to anoxic stratified conditions. A large-scale climate shift from cooler/humid to warmer/arid conditions marked the Kimmeridgian–Tithonian boundary, influencing organic matter enrichment in the stratigraphically higher organic-rich interval (Tithonian). In contrast with the lower organic-rich interval, there are no indications of stratified conditions for the higher organic-rich interval. Within this thicker organic-rich interval, cyclic variations in amorphous organic matter distribution, total organic carbon and δ13Corg trends on a 2 m scale are observed. They co-occur with fluctuations of the palynological assemblages, indicative of more humid versus arid climate conditions, likely alternating on a ∼100 kyr eccentricity timescale. Our results show that under the most humid phases of these overall arid climate conditions, sulfurization of carbohydrates was the dominant control on organic matter preservation. This climate-controlled process that drives organic matter enrichment in the Tithonian can be recognized on a basin-wide scale.

Organic-rich source rocks are not only crucial for hydrocarbon exploration and production but also serve as valuable archives of past environmental conditions. This study investigates the Upper Cretaceous (Maastrichtian) source rocks present in the Al-Lajoun Basin of central Jordan, to identify geochemical compositional variability corresponding to the paleo-environmental conditions during deposition. To this end, a multifaceted approach using Rock-Eval, SGR, XRD, XRF, ICP-OES, SEM-EDX, and thin-section petrography is utilized to understand bulk organic and inorganic geochemical proxies. Based on the results, the Jordan source rock is characterized as organic-rich, Type IIS kerogen, and thermally immature source rock, representing three distinct cycles of organic matter distribution. Cycle 1 is characterized as organic-rich carbonate mudstones with an average total organic carbon (TOC) content of 17 wt.%. This cycle represents high organic matter productivity, anoxic bottom water conditions, and episodic detrital influx (clays and detrital quartz). Cycle 2 is characterized as silica-rich mudstones to wackestones with an average TOC of 15 wt%. This cycle reflects a shift from carbonate-dominated to silica-dominated biota, likely driven by increased nutrient supply and changing climatic conditions. These conditions resulted in high bioproductivity and highly reducing anoxic/euxinic bottom water conditions during deposition. Cycle 3 represents foraminiferal wackestones to packstones with an average TOC of 12 wt.%. This cycle is characterized by a relatively high detrital sediment input, with comparatively low organic matter productivity and anoxic bottom water conditions. The identified organic and inorganic geochemical variability between these cycles implies changing climatic conditions over the open shelf setting, which in turn implies changes in ocean currents impacting the upwelling system of the Tethys margin. Understanding this relationship between ocean currents, climate, and the geochemical composition is crucial for efficiently exploring and exploiting organic-rich source rocks. A regional correlation of these cycles and their geochemical signatures could provide a powerful tool to trace ocean currents and associated climate change along the Tethys margin during the early Maastrichtian.

Rock ptarmigan (Lagopus muta) and willow ptarmigan (L. lagopus) are Arctic birds with a circumpolar distribution but there is limited knowledge about their status and trends across their circumpolar distribution. Here, we compiled information from 90 ptarmigan study sites from 7 Arctic countries, where almost half of the sites are still monitored. Rock ptarmigan showed an overall negative trend on Iceland and Greenland, while Svalbard and Newfoundland had positive trends, and no significant trends in Alaska. For willow ptarmigan, there was a negative trend in mid-Sweden and eastern Russia, while northern Fennoscandia, North America and Newfoundland had no significant trends. Both species displayed some periods with population cycles (short 3–6 years and long 9–12 years), but cyclicity changed through time for both species. We propose that simple, cost-efficient systematic surveys that capture the main feature of ptarmigan population dynamics can form the basis for citizen science efforts in order to fill knowledge gaps for the many regions that lack systematic ptarmigan monitoring programs.

This paper describes an assemblage of diverse floodplain facies of reworked loess (facies b, c) in a Middle Pleistocene monsoonal setting of the Hanzhong Basin, central China. The vertical and lateral sedimentary sequences show changing energy conditions. Apart from the highest energy in the channel facies (facies a), a relatively high energy floodplain environment (facies b) prevailed in waterlogged conditions, with small, laterally migrating (sub)channels. Facies b generally interfingers with aggrading horizontal sheets of overbank deposits in alluvial pools and swamps in a floodplain with much lower energy (facies c), in which phases of stability (soil formation) occasionally interrupted overbank deposition. Reworked loess forms the main part of the floodplain deposits. The paleosols are considered to have been formed under low hydrodynamic conditions in an interglacial environment. These interglacial conditions follow the commonly assumed glacial conditions of channel facies a. The sedimentary successions in the floodplain show a recurrent composition and cyclicity between wet and dry floodplain sedimentation terminated by stability with soil formation. The cyclic rhythm of stacked high- and low-energy floodplain sediments is attributed to varied intensity of different hydrodynamic flooding events that may have been due to changing monsoonal rainfall or simple intrinsic fluvial behavior.

IODP Ex. 323 to the Bering Sea recovered a detailed record of Quaternary environmental variability adjacent to Alaska and eastern Siberia. The deep-sea sediment records show a dramatic bimodal environmental record of alternating high versus low magnetic susceptibility. Oxygen isotope records indicate that the interglacials are times of high clastic flux (high magnetic susceptibility) from the adjacent continents into the Bering Sea. Subsequent, more detailed chronostratigraphy indicates that Interstadial 3 and Interglacials 5, 7, and 9 are also intervals of large-amplitude, millennial-scale environmental variability alternating between warmer/wetter and cooler/drier intervals, with a quasi-cyclicity of ~5000 years. Comparative studies of North Atlantic Quaternary sediments associated with ODP Leg 172, with a similar dramatic glacial/interglacial variation in carbonate, show an almost identical millennial-scale (~5000 yrs) pattern of variability that we attribute to alternating warmer/cooler intervals in Interstadial 3 and Interglacials 5, 7, and 9. These results can also be compared to findings for Lake Elgygytgyn in Siberia. The chronology of this record is less certain than those of the other two regions, but it, too, shows large-amplitude changes in magnetic susceptibility in Interstadial 3 and Interglacials 5, 7, and 9 that can be attributed to oscillating warmer/cooler conditions on a millennial scale. These results suggest a coherent, hemispheric-scale pattern of climate variability in interstadial/interglacial periods of the last 400 ka with a quasi-cyclicity of ~5000 years. We speculate that this cyclicity is driven by a harmonic of the chaotic precession Milankovich cyclicity.

Northern red‐backed voles (Clethrionomys rutilus) are an important species in the boreal forest ecosystem, both as herbivores and as a key food source for many mammalian and avian predators. They exhibit dramatic inter‐ and intra‐annual population fluctuations, for which causes are not entirely known. We monitored northern red‐backed vole densities in Denali National Park and Preserve through time with the goal of examining how environmental factors influenced density over time. Using a 30‐year record of mark‐recapture data, we used spatially explicit capture‐recapture methods to estimate autumn and early summer densities each year. We assessed cyclic patterns in density, variation in amplitude, and any periodicity of population fluctuations using post hoc linear modeling. We found that the vole population appeared to be cyclic with a 2–4 year period, although the pattern varied somewhat among sampling sites. Our results indicated an association between white spruce (Picea glauca) seed production and vole density, implying white spruce seeds were either an important source of food during winter seasons, or that the environmental triggers that promote high seed fall were also associated with increased vole density. We also found a negative effect of an autumn harshness index, indicating winter conditions play a role in vole density in the following season. Finally, we found evidence of a negative density‐dependent relationship between autumn and early summer. Together, these findings suggest a system in which density dependence and cyclic relationships are irregular but highly influential, with environmental effects capable of enhancing or moderating their impact. Continued monitoring of voles, alongside more thorough assessments of environmental conditions, may provide additional insight into the complex population dynamics of this species. In this study, we analyzed 30 years of northern red‐backed vole population data from Denali National Park to examine how environmental factors influenced density over time. We found that this population showed cyclic population fluctuations with a 2–4 year period, with some variation between sampling sites, and that densities were positively associated with white spruce seed production and negatively influenced by harsh autumn conditions. This, coupled with evidence of density dependence between autumn and early summer, suggests a system in which density dependence and cyclic relationships are irregular but highly influential, with environmental effects capable of enhancing or moderating their impact.

In this work, a new method to analyze the drought episodes based on the annual precipitation time series and utilizing complex networks theory is proposed. The precipitation time series is transformed into a complex network using the visibility algorithm.Then, several network measures are computed to characterize the underlying connectivity. The proposed analysis identifies important nodes which correspond to the low annual precipitation volume, providing a way to assess drought intensity without the use of the mean value and standard deviation, which are sensitive to climate change. Additionally, using community detection algorithms and network centrality measures, the method identifies ∼10-year and ∼4-year cycles within a period of 57 years. Using macroscopic measures like network distributions, we can identify rare high-intensity drought events. Finally, network analysis shows that the closeness centrality measure is in very good agreement with the well-known Standardised Precipitation Index (SPI) and thus can be used to characterize drought intensity.