Snail shells discovered at archaeological sites might still accurately record past weather and vegetation despite being the leftovers of a past meal.
proxies
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.
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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.
Posted inScience Updates
Stable Isotopes in Paleoclimate Reanalysis
Second Annual Workshop of the Last Millennium Reanalysis Project; Friday Harbor, Washington, 25–26 October 2016
Posted inResearch Spotlights
Improving Our Understanding of El Niño in a Warm Climate
A new study seeks to bring together the strongest features of proxy data and climate models to reduce uncertainties in reconstructions of past El Niño behavior.
Posted inResearch Spotlights
Follow Earthworm Tracks to Better Simulate Water Flow in Soils
Incorporating paths carved by the critters and by tree roots helps scientists align simulations of tropical soils more closely with real-world data.
Posted inResearch Spotlights
Mushrooms Could Provide a Record of Grassland History
Scientists measured carbon isotopes in certain types of fungi to assess whether the organisms can track how climate change is affecting grasses.
Posted inNews
Biogenic Oxygen on the Moon Could Hold Secrets to Earth's Past
Lunar orbiting data show that terrestrial oxygen rains down periodically on the Moon, enticing researchers with an opportunity to study Earth's ancient atmosphere.
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Bat Guano: A Possible New Source for Paleoclimate Reconstructions
Nitrogen isotopes within samples of bat excrement accurately reflect modern precipitation patterns. So could guano serve as a paleoclimate record?