The efficacy of using luminescence dating on glacial deposits is tested for a portion of the Marine Isotope Stage (MIS) 6 Laurentide Ice Sheet margin in southwestern Indiana. We assess small-aliquot quartz optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) and feldspar infrared-stimulated luminescence (IRSL) dating of glaciofluvial, glaciodeltaic, and aeolian sediments against a well-established soil stratigraphy and a cosmogenic 10Be depth profile. Results indicate that standard blue-light OSL regenerative protocols used on MIS 2 glacial sediments in the region warrant caution when duplicated for MIS 6 sediments. Quartz OSL ages underestimate age by up to 50% compared with cosmogenic and feldspar post-IR IRSL200 ages. Presence of unstable or hard-to-bleach OSL signal components that cannot be removed with modified preheat protocols yields unreliable data. While dates obtained using post-IR IRSL200 protocols on feldspar are affected by partial bleaching and anomalous fading, these factors can be accounted for. Discrimination of negligible-fading small-aliquot data allowed us to obtain post-IR IRSL200 ages between 103 ± 12 and 241 ± 28 ka. Post-IR IRSL200 ages are mostly consistent with 10Be depth-profile dating and stratigraphic constraints and represent a viable option to study glaciofluvial sedimentation during MIS 6 and older glaciations in the region.

Evidence suggests that trilobites experienced moderate diversification during the middle Permian, of which Pseudophillipsia Gemmellaro, 1892 is the most successful, with an unusually high number of species. However, it remains unclear whether their abundance reflects a stratigraphic trend or is specific to their habitat. To address this, we conducted a taxonomic study of Pseudophillipsia from the middle Permian (Capitanian) Kamiyasse Formation of the Southern Kitakami Terrane, Japan, and examined the burial processes to understand their habitat. Careful taxonomic analysis identified two species, Pseudophillipsia (Pseudophillipsia) spatulifera Kobayashi and Hamada, 1980 and Pseudophillipsia (Carniphillipsia) cf. Pseudophillipsia (Carniphillipsia) raggyorcakaensis Qian, 1981. The trilobites occur in both sandstone and mudstone, preserved as complete outstretched or enrolled specimens as well as disarticulated specimens, the majority of which are pygidia. Sedimentary facies indicate that the sandstone layer was formed in a shallow marine environment close to the lower shoreface, whereas the mudstone layer represents a slightly deeper environment, occasionally altered by storm flows. Based on biostratinomic features, the outstretched specimens with convex-up orientation must be autochthonous, whereas the enrolled specimens are interpreted as para-autochthonous, likely transported by storm flows. The greater the bioturbation, the greater the likelihood of the trilobite skeleton being disarticulated, particularly in mudstone layers. These findings suggest that Pseudophillipsia (Pseudophillipsia) spatulifera inhabited both sandy and muddy substrata, whereas Pseudophillipsia (Carniphillipsia) cf. Pseudophillipsia (Carniphillipsia) raggyorcakaensis was restricted to sandy environments. Given the limited geographic extent of the Kamiyasse Formation, we hypothesize that the appearance of Pseudophillipsia reflects a change in the sedimentary environment.

Compared to land-terminating glaciers, lake-terminating glaciers generally experience a higher mass loss due to the feedback from processes such as calving, dynamic thinning and flow acceleration associated with proglacial lakes. These processes often result in substantial changes in glacier length. We analyzed the evolution of the Jiongpu Co lake-terminating glacier on the Tibetan Plateau between October 2014 and November 2015, during which the glacier retreated by approximately 800 m. This dramatic retreat of the Jiongpu Co Glacier was mainly caused by calving from March to May 2015, leading to a mean retreat rate of 7.6 m d−1 during this period. The total mass loss of the glacier during the study period was 0.15 ± 0.01 Gt, with frontal ablation accounting for 74 ± 9% of this loss. Our findings highlight that the rapid calving event of the Jiongpu Co Glacier during 2014–2015 was likely associated with both accelerated velocity and a reduction in ice thickness above the flotation height at the terminus, which together enhanced frontal ablation and contributed to the observed rapid retreat.

This paper critically engages Büscher and Fletcher’s The Conservation Revolution, an influential manifesto within contemporary critical conservation scholarship. While the book offers a powerful political–economic critique of fortress, neoliberal and neoprotectionist conservation paradigms and advances ‘convivial conservation’ as a transformative alternative, this paper evaluates both its intellectual contributions and limitations. The analysis examines the book’s citational politics, theoretical framing and empirical scope, arguing that its reliance on metropolitan critical theory and limited engagement with place-based case studies constrain its claim to global applicability. Particular attention is given to the book’s terrestrial bias and minimal engagement with marine socioecological systems, which restricts its capacity to address governance challenges in oceanic environments. Drawing on interdisciplinary literature, including Indigenous-led conservation in Papua New Guinea and community-based coexistence strategies in Botswana, the paper demonstrates that many practices aligned with convivial conservation already exist as grounded, relational and locally governed approaches. These cases suggest that conservation transformation often emerges through incremental, situated governance rather than universal political rupture. The paper concludes that while The Conservation Revolution re-politicizes conservation debates, future scholarship must integrate systemic critique with epistemic plurality, marine and terrestrial ecologies and empirically grounded understandings of conservation practice.

This paper presents new radiocarbon (14C) measurements from annual tree rings of English oak (Quercus robur L.) from Kujawy, Poland, spanning 1042–1062 CE. The results confirm an increase in Δ14C values between 1053 and 1055 CE, within the Oort Minimum of solar activity, consistent with literature values (Brehm et al. 2021a; Eastoe et al. 2019; Terrasi et al. 2020). The data reveal a sustained increase in Δ14C values between 1053 and 1055 CE, rising from −6.9 ± 1.8‰ to −2.6 ± 1.8‰. For the preceding period (1042–1052 CE), the average Δ14C value is −11.0 ± 1.9%, indicating a significant increase of 8.4 ± 2.6‰ toward 1055 CE. The study estimates the 14C production rate during this period and suggests the radiocarbon increase likely began before 1054 CE, indicating it is unlikely to be significantly attributed to the supernova in 1054 CE. The study contributes to refining the understanding of rapid changes in atmospheric radiocarbon and their potential causes.

The fossil record is subject to multiple biases that can distort macroevolutionary and paleoecological inferences. Although temporal and spatial sampling biases have received substantial attention, other sources of fossil sampling heterogeneity remain less well quantified. Using the Triton database of planktonic foraminifera, we assess the influence of geographic, ecological, morphological, and methodological factors on fossil recovery rates. We first apply a temporal subsampling method to standardize fossil occurrences over geologic time, validating this approach against an expert-curated lineage-through-time trajectory. After subsampling, the occurrences remain unevenly distributed throughout species’ lifetimes and inhomogeneously distributed across species, reflecting biological signal and/or persistent sampling biases.

We then investigate this residual sampling heterogeneity with a generalized additive model incorporating relevant predictors from Triton. Our results reveal that, after correcting for temporal biases, geographic predictors (paleolatitude, paleolongitude, longitudinal spread) explain nearly a third of sampling variation. Species-specific ecological and morphological attributes contribute an additional fraction, among which mean relative abundance emerges as the main factor. Additional predictors of fossil sampling rates include age-calculation methods and biostratigraphic sampling biases. Despite accounting for multiple sources of variation, 37% of the deviance remains unexplained, suggesting unmodeled biological, stratigraphic, diagenetic, or taxonomic drivers of sampling heterogeneity.

Overall, observed recovery rates question the validity of the homogeneous-sampling assumption used in most diversification models, and this heterogeneity cannot be reduced to a single dominant factor. This conclusion reinforces the need for integrated subsampling approaches and process-based models that explicitly account for heterogeneous fossilization rates to improve the reliability of macroevolutionary analyses.