The number of paleo‐precipitation records from the South American Monsoon domain that cover the last millennium has increased substantially in past years. However, hitherto most studies focused only on regional aspects, thereby neglecting the role of large‐scale monsoon variability and the mechanisms that link proxy locations in space and time. Here we decompose the South American Monsoon into its main modes of variability by applying a Monte‐Carlo Principal Component Analysis to a compilation of 11 well‐dated summer paleo‐precipitation records from tropical South America. The 1^st mode represents changes in precipitation over the core monsoon domain, while the 2^nd mode is characterized by high loadings along the fringes of the South American Monsoon over Southeastern South America and the northern monsoon limit. Composite analysis reveals an enhanced monsoon with a wider, rather than a southward‐displaced, South Atlantic Convergence Zone during the early Little Ice Age, in contrast to previous interpretations.

Here we present an overview of speleothem δ¹⁸O records from South America, most of which are available in the Speleothem Isotopes Synthesis and Analysis (SISAL_v1) database. South American tropical and subtropical speleothem δ¹⁸O time series are primarily interpreted to reflect changes in precipitation amount, the amount effect, and consequently history of convection intensity variability of convergence zones such as the Intertropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ) and the South America Monsoon System (SAMS). We investigate past hydroclimate scenarios in South America related to the South American Monsoon System in three different time periods: Late Pleistocene, Holocene, and the last two millennia. Precession driven summertime insolation is the main driver of convective variability over the continent during the last 120 kyrs (from present day to 120 kyrs BP), including the Holocene. However, there is a dipole between speleothem δ¹⁸O records from western and eastern South America. Records located in the central region of Brazil are weakly affected by insolation-driven variability, and instead are more susceptible to the variability associated with the South Atlantic Convergence Zone (SACZ). Cold episodic events in the Northern Hemisphere, such as Heinrich and Bond Events, and the Little Ice Age, increase the convective activity of the SAMS, resulting in increased precipitation amount in South America.

The Middle East (ME) spans the transition between a temperate Mediterranean climate in the Levant to hyper-arid sub-tropical deserts in the southern part of the Arabian Peninsula (AP), with the complex alpine topography in the northeast feeding the Euphrates and Tigris rivers which support life in the Southeastern Fertile Crescent (FC). Climate projections predict severe drying in several parts of the ME in response to global warming, making it important to understand the controls of hydro-climate perturbations in the region. Here we discuss 23 ME speleothem stable oxygen isotope (δ¹⁸Occ) records from 16 sites from the SISAL_v1 database (Speleothem Isotope Synthesis and Analysis database), which provide a record of past hydro-climatic variability. Sub-millennial changes in ME δ¹⁸Occ values primarily indicate changes in past precipitation amounts the result of the main synoptic pattern in the region, specifically Mediterranean cyclones. This pattern is superimposed on change in vapor source δ¹⁸O composition. The coherency (or lack thereof) between regional records is reviewed from Pleistocene to present, covering the Last Glacial Maximum (~22 ka), prominent events during deglaciation, and the transition into the Holocene. The available δ¹⁸Occ time-series are investigated by binning and normalizing at 25-year and 200-year time windows over the Holocene. Important climatic oscillations in the Holocene are discussed, such as the 8.2 ka, 4.2 ka and 0.7 ka (the Little Ice Age) Before Present events. Common trends in the normalized anomalies are tested against different climate archives. Finally, recommendations for future speleothem-based research in the region are given along with comments on the utility and completeness of the SISAL database.

Atmospheric circulation is a fundamental component of Earth’s climate system, transporting energy poleward to partially offset the latitudinal imbalance in insolation. Changes in the latitudinal distribution of insolation thus force variations in atmospheric circulation, in turn altering regional hydroclimates. Here we demonstrate that regional hydroclimates controlled by the Northern Hemisphere mid-latitude storm tracks and the African and South American Monsoons changed synchronously during the last 10 kyrs. We argue that these regional hydroclimate variations are connected and reflect the adjustment of the atmospheric poleward energy transport to the evolving differential heating of the Northern and Southern Hemispheres. These results indicate that changes in latitudinal insolation gradients and associated variations in latitudinal temperature gradients exert important control on atmospheric circulation and regional hydroclimates. Since the current episode of global warming strongly affects latitudinal temperature gradients through Arctic amplification, our results can inform projections of likely inter-hemispheric precipitation changes in the future.

Stable oxygen and carbon isotope ratios (δ13C and δ18O) are the most applied climate and environmental proxies in speleothems allowing to infer past changes in cave drip water δ13C and δ18O related to climate and environmental variations from above the cave. However, disequilibrium isotope fractionation processes can modify δ13C and δ18O values in speleothems, which is in most cases difficult to estimate due to inter-dependencies on various cave specific parameter. To better understand the effect of these disequilibrium isotope fractionation processes proxy system models were developed in recent years, such as the ISOLUTION model. Here the code of the ISOLUTION model is made available for the public and the speleothem community to be applied to research questions that arise from e.g. monitoring programs that investigate δ13C and δ18O values of in situ calcite precipitates on watch glasses or modern speleothem calcite, respectively. Another application of the ISOLUTION model is to investigate the dependence of calcite δ13C and δ18O on the variation of one or multiple cave specific parameter, such as cave air temperature, drip interval, cave air pCO2, Ca2+ concentration of the drip water as well as on relative humidity and wind velocity. This allows to quantitatively estimate the effect of disequilibrium isotope fractionation processes in individual caves and drip sites on speleothem δ13C and δ18O values for modern and past climates and may help to further elucidate the complex interplay of kinetic and disequilibrium isotope fractionation.

Continental records with absolute dates of the timing and progression of climatic conditions during the Last Interglacial (LIG) from northern Europe are rare. Speleothems from northern Europe have a large potential as archives for LIG environmental conditions since they were formed in sheltered environments and may be preserved beneath ice sheets. Here, we present δ¹³C and δ¹⁸O values from speleothem Kf-21, from Korallgrottan in Jämtland (northwest Sweden). Kf-21 is dated with five MC-ICPMS U-Th dates with errors smaller than ~1 ka. Kf-21 started forming at ~130.2 ka and the main growth phase with relatively constant growth rates lasted from 127.3 ka to 124.4 ka, after which calcite formation ceased. Both δ¹³C and δ¹⁸O show rapid shifts but also trends, with a range of values within their Holocene counterparts from Korallgrottan. Our results indicate an early onset of the LIG in northern Europe with ice-free conditions at ~130 ka. Higher growth rates combined with more negative δ¹⁸O values between ~127.3 and 126.8 ka, interpreted here as warmer and more humid conditions, as well as indications of a millennial-scale cold spell centered at 126.2 ka, resemble findings from speleothem records from other parts of Europe, highlighting that these were regional scale climatic patterns.