Harikrishnan Guruvayoorappan , Dmitry V. Divine , Arto Miettinen , Rahul Mohan , Katrine Husum , Syed Mohammad Saalim , Lisa Claire Orme
{"title":"Ocean surface conditions during Holocene Thermal Maximum in Kongsfjorden, Svalbard, and its relevance for understanding modern warming in the region","authors":"Harikrishnan Guruvayoorappan , Dmitry V. Divine , Arto Miettinen , Rahul Mohan , Katrine Husum , Syed Mohammad Saalim , Lisa Claire Orme","doi":"10.1016/j.quascirev.2025.109252","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.quascirev.2025.109252","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>The Holocene Thermal Maximum (HTM) is a significant warm period of the Holocene epoch, occurring between 11 and 6 ka BP. Here we present a multidecadal-to-centennial scale resolution diatom-based quantitative reconstruction of August Sea surface temperature (aSST) from Kongsfjorden, Svalbard for the regional HTM period between 10.5 and 7.5 ka BP. We find highly variable and moderately warm surface conditions with periods of colder aSST and/or seasonal sea ice presence. Based on the reconstruction, we infer that the variability of local surface conditions during HTM was mainly influenced by insolation and glacier/sea ice melt along with changes in the proximity of oceanic frontal zones, while influence of Atlantic Water at the surface was limited. The reconstructed aSST of 3.7 °C on average for the reconstructed part of the HTM period and 4.2 °C for its warmest interval between 10.5 and 10.1 ka BP are comparable within the method uncertainty to summer sea surface temperatures observed in the area today. We further present the evidence that the diatom assemblages are preserved in the sedimentary sequence for the first time in the record during the HTM and then re-emerge only in the core top sediments, suggesting some similarity in the environmental conditions in Kongsfjorden between the modern period and the HTM.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":20926,"journal":{"name":"Quaternary Science Reviews","volume":"354 ","pages":"Article 109252"},"PeriodicalIF":3.2,"publicationDate":"2025-02-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143463751","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"地球科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Xiaolong Chen , Yan Liu , Xiaoshuang Zhao , Shihao Liu , Ning Zhao , Xiaohe Lai , Jing Chen , Maotian Li , Qianli Sun
{"title":"Rice farming mediated internal competition and reduced external risks during the Neolithic period","authors":"Xiaolong Chen , Yan Liu , Xiaoshuang Zhao , Shihao Liu , Ning Zhao , Xiaohe Lai , Jing Chen , Maotian Li , Qianli Sun","doi":"10.1016/j.quascirev.2025.109249","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.quascirev.2025.109249","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Rice cultivation and domestication are among the most transformative processes in human history, yet the internal driving forces behind these developments remain unclear. To address this, we integrated archaeological and palaeo-environmental data to develop a quantitative land-use model using an agent-based model (ABM). This model simulates human behavior and settlement development in the Yaojiang Valley on the east coast of China, a key region of the Neolithic Hemudu Culture with prolonged history of rice cultivation and domestication. We tested two scenarios: one with rice farming and one without. The results revealed that as population and settlements expanded, competition for resources intensified in both scenarios, leading to significant overlap in heavily utilized areas. However, rice cultivation provided additional and stable food sources, reduced the frequency, distance and risk associated with resource gathering, which in turn minimized competition among settlements and provided a strategic advantage for community survival. This strategy likely contributed to the emergence of smaller and more numerous settlements practicing rice farming during the late Hemudu period. Our research findings suggest that rice farming was adopted as a strategy to mitigate intra-settlement competition, underscoring the value of agent-based model in analyzing complex social-cultural dynamics.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":20926,"journal":{"name":"Quaternary Science Reviews","volume":"354 ","pages":"Article 109249"},"PeriodicalIF":3.2,"publicationDate":"2025-02-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143463782","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"地球科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Elevated equilibrium line altitude over High Mountain Asia during the Last Interglacial","authors":"Jinzhe Zhang , Qing Yan","doi":"10.1016/j.quascirev.2025.109267","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.quascirev.2025.109267","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>High Mountain Asia (HMA) was experiencing rapid climate change and significant glacier shrinkage in recent three decades, which has profound environmental and socioeconomic impacts on Asia. To better decipher the climate-glacier interaction, we examine climate change and the associated response of the Equilibrium Line Altitude (ELA) over HMA during the Last Interglacial (LIG), often viewed as a potential analogue for future warming world. Based on the bias-corrected model outputs from the Paleoclimate Modeling Intercomparison Project Phase 4, we illustrate an overall warmer/wetter state over HMA in summer but colder/drier conditions in winter during the LIG relative to the preindustrial. In response to the modeled climate change, the ELA rises by ∼466 ± 124 m on average across HMA during the LIG relative to the preindustrial, with more intense increase in the northern parts. Moreover, our sensitivity analysis shows that air temperature change dominates the variation of ELA during the LIG, and climate change during the summer season plays the most important role compared with the other seasons. Additionally, we demonstrate that the modeled ELA change could be largely biased if the seasonality effect is not considered. Despite the lack of glacier deposits/sediments for the LIG, the elevated ELA is in accordance with the reconstructed summer warming and expanded ancient lakes. Our results may improve the understanding of glacier behavior over HMA during the LIG and shed light on glacier response to future warming.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":20926,"journal":{"name":"Quaternary Science Reviews","volume":"355 ","pages":"Article 109267"},"PeriodicalIF":3.2,"publicationDate":"2025-02-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143463277","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"地球科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Zenobia Jacobs , Panagiotis Karkanas , B. Patrick Fahey , Erich C. Fisher , Curtis W. Marean
{"title":"A high-resolution chronology for the archaeological deposits at Pinnacle Point 5–6, Western Cape Province, South Africa","authors":"Zenobia Jacobs , Panagiotis Karkanas , B. Patrick Fahey , Erich C. Fisher , Curtis W. Marean","doi":"10.1016/j.quascirev.2025.109263","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.quascirev.2025.109263","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Pinnacle Point Site 5–6 (PP5-6) is a key archaeological and paleoenvironmental site located on the edge of the Palaeo-Agulhas Plain along the southern Cape coast of South Africa. Construction of high-resolution chronologies for archaeological sites beyond the range of radiocarbon dating is challenging. Geochronological methods such as optical dating are hampered by the availability of applicable materials that are directly associated with the events of interest. Optical dating relies on assumptions made about time-dependent changes and is made up of a series of measurements each with its own random and systematic uncertainties that together make up the age estimates. In this study, we explicitly took on the challenge to systematically produce a high-resolution chronology for PP5-6 made up of 197 individual age estimates of which 169 were input into a Bayesian age model. PP5-6 is ideal because of its fine-scale stratigraphy and use of modern excavation techniques and detailed recording of stratigraphy and plotted finds. Excavations and dating took place concurrently over almost two decades to inform the dating strategy, contextualise sample choice and data analysis, and to bring the scales of analysis of different proxies closer together. Here we present the optical dating process, including sensitivity tests of our instruments, data analysis procedures and modelling approach. We then construct a final timeline for comparisons with other proxy data and interpretation of the sedimentary sequence and occupation of PP5-6 over an interval of ∼60,000 years from ∼110,000 to ∼50,000 years ago. We show how closely linked sediment deposition is to changes in global climate and sea-level, identify a few Pleistocene and Holocene erosional events that modified the site post-depositionally and place a variety of interconnected causes and effects coincident with different types of occupation on this timeline. This approach opens up opportunities to reduce the resolution of chronologies closer to the human timescales required to improve our understanding of changes through time and to make more direct comparisons between other sites and proxies that contain similarly highly resolved archives of human occupation and change.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":20926,"journal":{"name":"Quaternary Science Reviews","volume":"354 ","pages":"Article 109263"},"PeriodicalIF":3.2,"publicationDate":"2025-02-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143445319","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"地球科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Paleoenvironmental impacts on human evolution in China during the Quaternary","authors":"Christopher J. Bae , Wei Wang , Zhongping Lai","doi":"10.1016/j.quascirev.2025.109248","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.quascirev.2025.109248","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":20926,"journal":{"name":"Quaternary Science Reviews","volume":"354 ","pages":"Article 109248"},"PeriodicalIF":3.2,"publicationDate":"2025-02-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143420733","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"地球科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Andrea Columbu , Ilaria Isola , Giovanni Zanchetta , Russell N. Drysdale , Stefano Natali , John C. Hellstrom , Michel Magny , Anthony E. Fallick
{"title":"Speleothem evidence of late glacial and Early Holocene Preboreal and Boreal hydro-climate changes in western Mediterranean (Corchia Cave, Italy)","authors":"Andrea Columbu , Ilaria Isola , Giovanni Zanchetta , Russell N. Drysdale , Stefano Natali , John C. Hellstrom , Michel Magny , Anthony E. Fallick","doi":"10.1016/j.quascirev.2025.109241","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.quascirev.2025.109241","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>This paper explores the rainfall variability across the western Mediterranean area from ca. 12 to 9 ka, and its climate teleconnection within the northern Hemisphere realm. A high-resolution stable isotope (δ<sup>18</sup>O, δ<sup>13</sup>C) and growth rate record from a Corchia Cave stalagmite (Apuan Alps, Central Italy) shows evidence of: 1) increased rainfall during the transition from the late Younger Dryas (YD) to the Holocene; and 2) two Early Holocene episodes of reduced rainfall during the so-called Preboreal and Boreal Oscillations (PBO and BO respectively). The YD to Holocene transition occurs at Corchia from 11.91<sup>+0.10</sup>/<sub>-0.11</sub> to 11.33<sup>+0.07</sup>/<sub>-0.07</sub> ka, in agreement with other Mediterranean records. The expression of PBO is constrained in Central Italy between 11.19<sup>+0.09</sup>/<sub>-0.08</sub> and 11.04<sup>+0.09</sup>/<sub>-0.09</sub> ka, while the BO from 10.42<sup>+0.13</sup>/<sub>-0.27</sub> to 10.19<sup>+0.27</sup>/<sub>-0.24</sub> ka, contemporaneous with a significant reduction of the Lago dell’ Accesa lake levels (Central Italy).</div><div>The new record suggests that the increase of rainfall at Corchia during the deglaciation is connected to the enhanced evaporation from a warming north Atlantic and the higher moisture amount across the Mediterranean delivered by the westerlies. Reduced rainfall is instead attested during PBO/BOs. The latter are often associated with fluxes of ice-sheet meltwaters into the Atlantic, which trigger a deficit in moisture availability resulting in lower humidity reaching the Mediterranean area. This work confirms that the PBO/BO relative aridity is restricted to the Mediterranean area, while mid-European records point to moister conditions within the same events. Thus, our results imply that future – even subtle - polar ice sheet instabilities, boosted by the ongoing climate crisis, might amplify the change of rainfall dynamics across the western Mediterranean, a hot-spot area for climatic change that is already experiencing an increasing number of drought years.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":20926,"journal":{"name":"Quaternary Science Reviews","volume":"354 ","pages":"Article 109241"},"PeriodicalIF":3.2,"publicationDate":"2025-02-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143420732","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"地球科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Eirik G. Ballo , William J. D'Andrea , Helge I. Høeg , Kjetil Loftsgarden , Manon Bajard , Sabine Eckhardt , Massimo Cassiani , Nikolaos Evangeliou , Jostein Bakke , Kirstin Krüger
{"title":"2000 years of climate, environmental, and societal variability in southeastern Norway from the annually laminated sediments of Lake Sagtjernet","authors":"Eirik G. Ballo , William J. D'Andrea , Helge I. Høeg , Kjetil Loftsgarden , Manon Bajard , Sabine Eckhardt , Massimo Cassiani , Nikolaos Evangeliou , Jostein Bakke , Kirstin Krüger","doi":"10.1016/j.quascirev.2025.109232","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.quascirev.2025.109232","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Previous Common Era (i.e., the past 2000 years) climate reconstructions from Fennoscandia have focused on northern and central areas, with scarce data from the southern areas. Using varved sediments from Lake Sagtjernet in southeastern Norway, we developed a hydrogen isotope record from sedimentary leaf waxes (<em>n</em>-alkanes) as a proxy for hydrogen isotopes in precipitation, which we interpret as an indicator of temperature variability over the past 2000 years. The climate reconstruction provides high, decadal resolution for the period 360–770 CE, allowing critical evaluation during the Dark Ages Cold Period (around 300–800 CE) and a cooling during the 6th century, previously suggested as the coldest period of the Common Era. Our results reveal that the most rapid drop in temperature occurred from 536 to 545 CE (<sup>+74</sup>/<sub>-90</sub> years), corresponding in time to the 536 and 540 CE volcanic eruptions. We also document an inferred cold interval that persisted from around 650 to 710 CE (<sup>+72</sup>/<sub>-90</sub> years). While past studies have suggested prolonged cooling during the Dark Ages Cold Period, our findings show that, on average, the climate during 360–770 CE was similar to the Common Era average in the Lake Sagtjernet record. To explore socio-environmental interactions throughout the past 2000 years, we present a pollen-based environmental reconstruction and integrate it with archaeological evidence from around Lake Sagtjernet. These analyses reveal significant societal activities such as land clearing, cereal cultivation, and large-scale iron production, which drastically altered the landscape in the Viking Age (around 800–1050 CE) and the first half of the Norwegian Middle Ages (around 1050–1350 CE). Modern cultivation practices following the Black Death (1349–1350 CE) were first established around 1470 CE and increased continuously until around 1940 CE. Intensification of societal activities through the past millennium, including iron production and modern cultivation, occurred during both warmer (Medieval Climate Anomaly; 950–1250 CE) and colder (Little Ice Age; 1450–1850 CE) periods.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":20926,"journal":{"name":"Quaternary Science Reviews","volume":"354 ","pages":"Article 109232"},"PeriodicalIF":3.2,"publicationDate":"2025-02-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143420729","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"地球科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Anna To , Anne de Vernal , Matthias Moros , Bianca Fréchette , Audrey Limoges
{"title":"Climate and ocean changes in the western Hudson Strait over the last 6000 years","authors":"Anna To , Anne de Vernal , Matthias Moros , Bianca Fréchette , Audrey Limoges","doi":"10.1016/j.quascirev.2025.109229","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.quascirev.2025.109229","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>A record of marine and terrestrial palynomorphs from a sediment core collected from the western Hudson Strait provided evidence of past climatic and hydrographic variability over the last 6000 years with a decadal to multidecadal temporal resolution. The sequence is characterized by high and uniform sediment accumulation rates of about 0.1 cm/year. Throughout the sequence, dinoflagellate cysts (dinocysts) and organic linings of benthic foraminifers are very abundant, ranging up to ∼16,000 cysts/cm<sup>3</sup> and ∼2500 organic linings/cm<sup>3</sup> respectively, indicating high primary production and organic carbon fluxes. The dinocyst assemblages are dominated by the cyst of <em>Pentapharsodinium dalei</em> and <em>Brigantedinium</em> spp., and <em>Islandinium minutum</em> subsp. <em>minutum</em>, mainly accompanied by <em>Operculodinium centrocarpum</em>, <em>Spiniferites ramosus</em>, <em>S. elongatus</em>, <em>Islandinium</em>? <em>cezare</em> and <em>Echinidinium karaense</em>. Such an assemblage is typical for highly productive seasonally ice-free environments. The reconstruction of sea-surface parameters based on dinocyst assemblages indicates warmer conditions from the base of the core until ⁓2750 cal yr BP. Subsequently, a cooling trend was marked by more extensive seasonal sea-ice cover spanning up to 9 months/yr, and fluctuating conditions of salinity. In the pollen assemblages, <em>Alnus</em> and <em>Betula</em> abundance decreased upcore while Ericaceae increased, which we associate with harsher climatic conditions. Hence, both pollen and dinocyst data point to a cooling trend, with a main transition occurring between 2700 and 2000 cal yr BP.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":20926,"journal":{"name":"Quaternary Science Reviews","volume":"354 ","pages":"Article 109229"},"PeriodicalIF":3.2,"publicationDate":"2025-02-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143403062","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"地球科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Dongxue Li , Hui Zhao , Haichao Xie , Aijun Sun , Farhad Khormali , Xin Wang , Qiang Wang , Hamid Lahijani , Hassan Fazeli Nashli , Yujie Xu , Fahu Chen
{"title":"Loess-paleosol sedimentological characteristics in northern Iran since the last interglacial and their paleoenvironmental significance","authors":"Dongxue Li , Hui Zhao , Haichao Xie , Aijun Sun , Farhad Khormali , Xin Wang , Qiang Wang , Hamid Lahijani , Hassan Fazeli Nashli , Yujie Xu , Fahu Chen","doi":"10.1016/j.quascirev.2025.109213","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.quascirev.2025.109213","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>The climatic signals recorded by loess sequences vary between different regions, which makes it important to study loess sequences worldwide. The loess deposits in northern Iran are situated in the transitional zone between the European loess and Central Asian loess. However, the depositional dynamics and paleoenvironmental significance of the loess deposits in this region are not well understood, making it difficult to establish detailed correlations with loess deposits elsewhere, partly due to the lack of systematic and high-resolution chronological control. We used K-feldspar pIR<sub>50</sub>IR<sub>290</sub> and MET-pIRIR<sub>250</sub> luminescence dating protocols to date fifty-two K-feldspar samples from the Toshan-19 section in the northern foothills of the Alborz Mountains, northern Iran. These chronological data, along with the climate proxies of magnetic susceptibility and redness, combined with a comparison with published loess records from various regions, indicate the following: (1) K-feldspar luminescence ages obtained using pIRIR and MET-pIRIR protocols are consistent, and their luminescence ages up to ∼200 ka are deemed dependable. The loess at Toshan was primarily deposited during 78–24 ka, corresponding to MIS 4–2, and the paleosols developed during 139–78, and 24–1.7 ka, corresponding respectively to MIS 5, and late MIS 2–MIS 1. (2) Drier conditions prevailed during the last glacial and wetter conditions dominated during the last interglacial. Moisture variations during the substages of MIS 5 in this region indicate cold-dry and warm-wet climatic characteristics. The reasons for increased moisture from late MIS 2 onwards in this region still require further investigation. (3) The loess-paleosol records indicate a consistent pattern of climate change over Eurasia on the scale of the last interglacial-glacial cycle. During the substages of MIS 5, warm-wet and cold-dry conditions in northern Iran were in-phase with those on the Chinese Loess Plateau, Europe, and southern Tajikistan; however, they were anti-phased or out-of-phase with those in Xinjiang.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":20926,"journal":{"name":"Quaternary Science Reviews","volume":"354 ","pages":"Article 109213"},"PeriodicalIF":3.2,"publicationDate":"2025-02-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143395032","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"地球科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Hao Li , Deke Xu , Yong Ge , Yongli Wang , Chang Li , Anning Cui , Yajie Dong , Xinxin Zuo , Can Wang , Naiqin Wu , Houyuan Lu
{"title":"Climate change was more important than human activity in late Holocene vegetation change on the southern Tibetan Plateau","authors":"Hao Li , Deke Xu , Yong Ge , Yongli Wang , Chang Li , Anning Cui , Yajie Dong , Xinxin Zuo , Can Wang , Naiqin Wu , Houyuan Lu","doi":"10.1016/j.quascirev.2025.109245","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.quascirev.2025.109245","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>The Tibetan Plateau (TP) is one of the world's largest alpine grassland ecosystems, and it has been influenced by both climate change and human activities during the late Holocene. However, the dominant driver of vegetation change in these grasslands, whether climate change or human activity, remains controversial, particularly on the southern Tibetan Plateau (STP). Here, we present a high-resolution phytolith record from the STP, which reveals the relatively stable long-term grassland composition during the past ∼3,600 years. In addition, we used Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) to investigate the relative importance of seven potential drivers of grassland change on the STP over the past ∼3,600 years: precipitation, temperature, atmospheric CO<sub>2</sub> concentration, fire, human influence index (HII), cultivation and pastoralism activity. The results indicate that precipitation was the most important driver of changes in grassland composition, whereas the effect of human activities was limited. While our findings highlight the significant role of climate change in driving changes in alpine grassland composition, the increasing influence of human activities should be considered in future assessments.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":20926,"journal":{"name":"Quaternary Science Reviews","volume":"354 ","pages":"Article 109245"},"PeriodicalIF":3.2,"publicationDate":"2025-02-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143387907","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"地球科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}