Aim Domestic animals first appeared in the archaeological record in northern Africa c. 9000 years before present and subsequently spread southwards throughout the continent. This geographic expansion is well studied and can broadly be explained in terms of the movement of pastoralist populations due to climate change. However, no studies have explicitly evaluated changes in the climatic niche of these domesticates. A priori, o...

The influence of different drivers on changes in North American and European boreal forests biomass burning (BB) during the Holocene was investigated based on the following hypotheses: land use was important only in the southernmost regions, while elsewhere climate was the main driver modulated by changes in fuel type. BB was reconstructed by means of 88 sedimentary charcoal records divided into six different site clusters. A...

Aim Despite the recent improvements made in species distribution models ( SDMs ), assessing species' ability to migrate fast enough to track their climate optimum remains a challenge. This study achieves this goal and demonstrates the reliability of a process‐based SDM to provide accurate projections by simulating the post‐glacial colonization of E uropean beech. Location E urope. Methods We simulated the post‐glacial coloniza...

Aim To contribute to the intense debate surrounding the relative influence of climate and humans on Mediterranean‐region land cover over the past 6000 years, we assess the Holocene biogeography and vegetation history of southern Europe by means of an extensive pollen record dataset. Location The Mediterranean biogeographical zone and neighbouring parts of Iberia, the Alps and Anatolia, between 30° N, 48° N, 10° W and 45° E. Me...

Stable isotope and pollen data from Gölhisar Gölü, a small intramontane lake located in southwest Turkey, provide complementary records of Holocene climate change. Modern oxygen and hydrogen isotope water data are used as a means of comparing present‐day isotope composition of the lake water to the past oxygen isotope composition of the lake water as calculated from 18 O/ 16 O ratios in calcite precipitated in the summer month...