The Amazon comprises the most biodiverse region in the world, but, despite being highly threatened by human-induced environmental changes, little is known about how those changes influence the remaining forest’s extent and configuration in Brazil’s arc of deforestation. We analysed the spatial and temporal dynamics and the configuration of forest cover in Brazil’s state of Rondônia over 34 years. We calculated seven landscape metrics based on freely available satellite imagery to understand the habitat transformations. Overall, natural vegetation cover declined from 90.9% to 62.7% between 1986 and 2020, and fragmentation greatly increased, generating 78 000 forest fragments and 100 000 fragments of ‘natural vegetation’, which also includes forest. We found that c. 50% of the vegetation is within c. 1 km of the nearest forest edge, and the mean isolation between fragments is c. 2.5 km. Most natural vegetation and forest vegetation layers outside protected areas (PAs; Brazil’s ‘conservation units’) and Indigenous territories (ITs) are >10 km from the nearest PA or IT. This reduction of natural vegetation in Rondônia is posing major threats to the survival of species and is undermining the dynamics of ecosystems. Measures to control deforestation and avoid the reduction of large remnants are urgently needed.

Alluvial fans associated with eolian fields are common geomorphic features that reflect complex interactions in which the alluvial or eolian system acts as both a sedimentary source and a modifier. The semi-arid region of the São Francisco River is notable in Quaternary studies for its alluvial system and the largest Quaternary inland eolian field in Brazil. Fluvial fans are present on the western margin of the river and to the south of the eolian field. To characterize these fans, we used remote sensing, fieldwork, sedimentology, and OSL dating. We identified three fluvial fans: two asymmetric (> 185 km2) and one circular (8.5 km2). The eolian deposits played a critical role in both sediment supply and formation of the fluvial fans. Fan spreading occurred due to the difference in gradient between the eolian field and the river terraces. Fan deposits were dated to 4.5 ± 0.6 ka, and overlap with other systems, which suggests the system was active before 4 ka. Currently, these fans are degrading and being reworked by wind, and the drainages that exist across them are ephemeral. The Xique-Xique fluvial fans are now fossil systems, preserving evidence of past increased rainfall and base level lowering in the Late Holocene.

Geochemical and 40Ar/39Ar age analyses of a new exposure of a previously destroyed volcanic ash locality within the Airport Terrace above the Middle Popo Agie River in Lander, Wyoming, allows us to re-establish it as Lava Creek A from the last major eruption of the Yellowstone caldera, with a weighted mean age of 628.2 ± 4.1 ka. Confirmation of the ash as Lava Creek more firmly establishes correlation of the terrace with the WR-7 terraces along the Wind River that contain Lava Creek ash and with outwash correlated to the Sacagawea Ridge type moraine at Dinwoody Lakes. By projecting the Airport Terrace gradient upstream, we show that it grades to the previously mapped terminus of the Sacagawea Ridge valley glacier. Additionally, 10Be boulder-exposure ages of ca. 521, ca. 554, and ca. 556 ka from Sacagawea Ridge moraines in nearby canyons support more closely constraining the Sacagawea Ridge glaciation here to Marine Oxygen Isotope Stage 16, which corresponds with recent evidence for an advance of the Laurentide Ice Sheet at this time in the U.S. midcontinent.

This study investigated the temporal and spatial variability of temperature, salinity, pH and suspended particulate matter (SPM) in surface water from Admiralty Bay, Antarctic Peninsula. The study aimed to understand how water parameters were affected during high meltwater runoff in the summer of 2019/2020, to verify the influence of rapid temperature changes from the spring and summer of 2022/2023 and to identify the sources of SPM. In January 2020, the water temperature and salinity in the region were influenced by rapid shifts in environmental conditions, while pH and SPM remained similar to previous years. The same pattern was observed in the summer of 2022/2023, with only water temperature and salinity varying towards the end of the summer. The SPM concentrations were mainly influenced by wind speed. Spatially, there was no sectorization between different inlets, with specific sites influenced by meltwater and higher SPM values. The study suggests that strong winds are the primary factor influencing SPM resuspension in Admiralty Bay, with atmospheric deposition and meltwater also contributing. This dynamic variability in the water column highlights the need to closely monitor the water’s physicochemical parameters and the influence of atmospheric conditions. This study contributes to our understanding of the SPM sources on the Antarctic coast.

At the end of the last glaciation aeolian processes promoted the development of the European Sand Belt, generating one of the largest areas of cold-climate dune fields in the world. Specific processes that led to the development and stabilization of these dunes remain poorly understood because there have been limited attempts to reconstruct the Belt’s past aeolian environments. New paleoenvironmental information can now be provided through an assessment of residual dune ridges (RDRs), landforms that are characteristic of wet dune systems. We recently identified almost 2,000 RDRs within the Kampinos Forest dune field (central Poland) and examined them through detailed morphometric analysis. That search showed that the development of the RDRs was driven by seasonally increased fluvial runoff and, in the longer term, by climate amelioration—apparently during the Bølling–Allerød interstadial. The high density of dunes protected ridges from deflation, so was crucial towards RDR preservation. The study proved that the RDRs can exist for more than 10 ka years, thus they can be used as environmental proxies. Additionally, they can be used as an indicator of past flood-event frequency and magnitude, as well as act as repositories of information on past-dune transformation.