Bacterial DNA provides a good estimate of river discharge.
proxies
Posted inEditors' Vox
Radiocarbon in the Oceans
Offsets in radiocarbon concentration within the ocean or between the ocean and the atmosphere are particularly useful proxies for a variety of studies.
Posted inNews
Tree Rings Tell a Tale of Wartime Privations
In occupied Norway during World War II, the German navy deployed thick chemical fog to protect a precious battleship. The effects are still detectable in trees.
Posted inScience Updates
Reconstructing Climate and Environment from Coral Archives
Tropical Coral Archives—Reconstructions of Climate and Environment Beyond the Instrumental Record at Society-Relevant Timescales; Bremen, Germany, 28 September 2017
Posted inFeatures
Five Weird Archives That Scientists Use to Study Past Climates
When tree rings, ice cores, and cave formations can’t cut it, try your luck with whale earwax or bat poop.
Posted inResearch Spotlights
One of World’s Oldest Animals Records Ocean Climate Change
Researchers probe millennia-old deep-ocean sponges for links between ocean nutrients and climate.
Posted inNews
Boiled or Raw, Snail Shells Keep an Environmental Archive
Snail shells discovered at archaeological sites might still accurately record past weather and vegetation despite being the leftovers of a past meal.
Posted inNews
Volcanic Woes May Have Contributed to Ancient Egypt’s Fall
Ice cores and ancient river records suggest that volcanic eruptions may have reduced the flow of the Nile River. Failures of the Nile floods that usually irrigated Egypt’s farms could have fed social unrest.
Posted inNews
Sooty Bird Bellies Yield Insights into Historical Air Pollution
A new study mined museum collections to investigate just how sooty the air in the United States has been for the past 135 years.
Posted inNews
Giant Snails’ Century-Old Shells Recorded Monsoon Rainfall
Researchers explored past precipitation in India using shells from very large land snails collected there in 1918 and preserved in a British museum.