Many of the problems that have been discussed with regard to the analog approach to paleoclimatic reconstruction may be illustrated by consideration of basic principles and definitions, and the logical consquences thereof. Specific attention is directed toward the definition of the regional macroclimate as the modal microclimate and to a series of axioms: (1) There are various microclimates which depart more or less from the macroclimate in each terrestrial region. (2) Environment and climate change on time scales from near instantaneous to millions of years. (3) Climate is multidimensional (a vector), not a single scalar datum. (4) Biotic assemblage changes in response to environmental (including climatic) changes are expressed primarily in terms of reproductive success. One may conclude from the corollaries to these axioms that perfect analogs cannot be found for any Holocene climate, but that “partial analogs” (“transfer equations”) may still be used if allowance is made for shared variance.

Dimensions of Holocene relict channels and sedimentological characteristics of point bars associated with these relict channels were used to reconstruct a Holocene history of long-term changes in magnitudes of 1.58-yr floods in Upper Mississippi Valley watersheds of southwestern Wisconsin. The reconstructed record of floods shows relatively large and persistent (nonrandom) departures from contemporary long-term average flood magnitudes. The flood history indicates climatic changes that are broadly similar to climatic changes indicated from fossil pollen in the same region. The Holocene floods ranged from about 10–15% larger to 20–30% smaller than contemporary floods of the same recurrence frequency. Large floods were characteristic between about 6000 – 4500 and 3000 – 2000 yr B.P., and during a brief interval after 1200 yr B.P. Small floods were common between about 8000 – 6500, 4500 – 3000, and 2000 – 1200 yr B.P. These fluvial responses were found to be closely associated with a long-term episodic mobility and storage of sediments in the Wisconsin watersheds. During periods of relatively large floods, relatively rapid lateral channel migration either reworked or removed extensive tracts of valley bottom alluvium. In contrast, during periods of relatively small floods, relatively slow lateral channel migration is apparent and the channel and floodplain system appear to have been relatively stable.

Pollen and charcoal analysis of radiocarbon-dated sediment cores from Duck Pond in the Cape Cod National Seashore provide a continuous 12,000-yr vegetation and climate history of outer Cape Cod. A Picea-Hudsonia parkland and then a Picea-Pinus banksiana-Alnus crispa boreal forest association grew near the site between 12,000 and 10,000 yr B.P. This vegetation was replaced by a northern conifer forest of Pinus strobus-P. banksiana, and, subsequently, by a more mesophytic forest (Pinus strobus, Tsuga, Quercus, Fagus, Acer, Ulmus, Fraxinus, Ostrya) as the climate became warmer and wetter by 9500 yr B.P. By 9000 yr B.P. a Pinus rigida-Quercus association dominated the landscape. High charcoal frequencies from this and subsequent levels suggest that the pine barrens association developed during a warmer and drier climate that lasted from 9000 to about 5000 yr B.P. Increased percentages of Pinus strobus pollen indicate a return to moister and cooler conditions by about 3500 yr B.P. A doubled sedimentation rate, increased charcoal, and increased herb pollen suggest land disturbance near the pond before European settlement. These results suggest a rapid warming in the northeast in the early Holocene and support a hypothesis of a rapid sea level rise at that time. Comparison of the pollen results from Duck Pond with those from Rogers Lake, Connecticut, illustrates the importance of edaphic factors in determining the disturbance frequency and vegetation history of an area.

A nitric acid digestion and ignition technique developed to measure relative frequencies of charcoal in lake and bog sediments measures the weight of charcoal relative to the dry weight of the sample (percentage charcoal) and gives results comparable to counting of microscopic charcoal. Differences in the two techniques caused by changes in sediment type were found especially in postsettlement and late-glacial parts of cores. Charcoal values from sediments less than 100-yr old cannot be compared to older charcoal values unless wood charcoal and charcoal from fossil fuel burning are separated microscopically. Tests of this chemical assay on mixtures of known weights of charcoal, leaves, and sand give correlations between observed and expected values of 0.99 to 1.00.

Simulations of cool-temperate forest growth in response to climatic change using the JABOWA computer model show that a decrease of 600 growing degree-days (equivalent to a 2°C decrease in mean annual temperature) causes red spruce (Picea rubens) to replace sugar maple (Acer saccharum) as the dominant tree. These changes are delayed 100–200 yr after the climatic cooling, producing gradual forest changes in response to abrupt temperature changes, and reducing the amplitude of response to brief climatic events. Soils and disturbances affect the speed and magnitude of forest response. The delayed responses are caused by the difference in sensitivity of adult trees and younger stages. The length of the delay depends on the life history characteristics of the dominant species. Delayed responses imply that fossil pollen deposits, even if they faithfully record the abundances of trees in forests, may not be able to resolve climatic changes within 100–200 yr, or to record very brief climatic events. This explains why pollen deposits do not as yet show responses to climatic changes during the past 100 yr. Only the Little Ice Age, which lasted several centuries, caused sufficient forest change to be recorded in fossil pollen, and only at certain sites.

The landscapes of northern New England and adjacent areas of Canada changed greatly between 14,000 and 9000 yr B.P.: deglaciation occurred, sea levels and shorelines shifted, and a vegetational transition from tundra to closed forest took place. Data from 51 14C-dated sites from a range of elevations were used to map ice and sea positions, physiognomic vegetational zones, and the spread of individual tree taxa in the region. A continuum of tundra-woodland-forest passed northeastward and northward without major hesitation or reversal. An increased rate of progression from 11,000 to 10,000 yr B.P. suggests a more rapid warming than in the prior 2000–3000 yr. Elevational gradients controlled the patterns of deglaciation and vegetational change. The earliest spread of tree taxa was via the lowlands of southern Vermont and New Hampshire, and along a coastal corridor in Maine. Only after 12,000 yr B.P. did the taxa spread northward through the rest of the area. Different tree species entered the southern part of the area at different times and continued their spread at different rates. The approximate order of arrival follows: poplars (13,000–12,000 yr B.P. in the south), spruces, paper birch, and jack pine, followed by balsam fir and larch, and possibly ironwood, ash, and elm, and somewhat later by oak, maple, white pine, and finally hemlock (10,000–9000 yr B.P. in the south).

A vegetation map reconstructed for the Japanese Archipelago (based upon pollen data from 28 sites and plant macrofossil data from 33 sites) at the time of last glacial maximum shows that coniferous forests covered extensive areas of the land. Boreal conifer forests (dominated by the Picea jezoensis complex, P. glehnii, Abies sachalinensis, A. mariesii, Tsuga diversifolia, and Pinus with Larix gmelinii, though the latter species was confined only to the northern part of northeastern Honshu and Hokkaido) occupied the modern cool-temperature deciduous broadleaf and mid-temperate conifer forest zones, and temperate coniferous forests (mainly Picea maximowiczii, P. polita, P. bicolor, P. koyamai, Abies firma, A. homolepis, Tsuga sieboldii, and Pinus), the present warm-temperate evergreen (laurilignosa) forest zone. Small populations of various broadleaf forest species were scattered in the full-glacial temperate conifer forest mainly along the coastal belt, and the true laurilignosa forest was limited in distribution, occurring only in the paleo-Yaku Peninsula.

Field evidence from the Atacama Desert of northern Chile indicates that the stratigraphic position of the land snail Bostryx variabilis Herm has been incorrectly assigned to a marine series of the lower Pleistocene. Isotopic dating proves that the snail is a recently extinct Holocene taxon requiring no special paleoenvironmental explanations for its presence. However, the snail appears to offer an example of stress-induced speciation in confirmation of the “punctuated equilibrium” theory of evolution. It was probably transported from a fog oasis mountain habitat to a lower, hyperarid hostile environment by a sudden mudflow.

The well known Clovis and Plainview archaeological sites of New Mexico and Texas have yielded new data on regional late Quaternary geologic, paleoclimatic, and pedologic histories. Eolian sedimentation at the Clovis site from about 10,000 to less than 8500 yr B.P. was followed by the formation of a cumulic soil between 8500 and 5000 yr B.P. Episodic eolian and slope wash deposition then culminated in massive eolian sedimentation about 5000 yr B.P. after which a Haplustalf formed then was subsequently buried by part of a dune system within the last 1000 yr. At the Plainview site, a basal stream gravel contains Plainview cultural material (ca. 10,000 yr B.P.), which is followed by a localized early Holocene lacustrine deposit, two eolian deposits (the younger dating to about 5000 yr B.P.), and a marsh deposit which slowly accreted as an Argiustoll formed in the younger eolian unit. The data indicate that on the Southern High Plains (1) between 12,000 and 8500 yr B.P. sedimentation varied from site to site, (2) there was a regional climate change toward warming and drying in the early Holocene, (3) two episodes of severe drought apparently occurred in the middle Holocene (6500 to 4500 yr B.P.), (4) between 4500 yr B.P. and the present an essentially modern climate existed, but with several shifts toward aridity within the last 1000 yr, (5) argillic horizons have developed in late Holocene soils, (6) clay illuviation can occur in calcareous soils, and (7) long-distance correlation of Holocene stratigraphy in the region is possible, particularly with the aid of soil morphology.

Tephra in 31 piston cores from the western Gulf of Mexico and 7 piston cores from the equatorial Pacific were analyzed by electron microprobe. Six ash layers in the western Gulf of Mexico were easily distinguished by TiO2, FeO, and CaO contents and correlated by geochemistry in order to determine the distribution pattern for each ash layer. Correlation by geochemistry is an easier, more accurate method than biostratigraphic correlation; some of the tephras were miscorrelated by biostratigraphy. The six tephras were dated by geochemical identification in a piston core with oxygen-isotope stratigraphy and the ages are Y5 (30,000 yr B.P.), Y6 (65,000 yr B.P.), Y8 (84,000 yr B.P.), X2 (110,000 yr B.P.), W1 (136,000 yr B.P.), and W2 (185,000 yr B.P.). Data from this study corroborated correlations of the Y8 tephra in the western Gulf of Mexico with the D layer in the eastern equatorial Pacific Ocean. None of the other five layers in the Gulf of Mexico, however, were found in the Pacific Ocean. The limited distribution of the Y5, Y6, X2, and W2 ash layers close to Mexico indicates possible sources in Mexico. Tephra from the late Pleistocene La Primavera pumice in Mexico, however, does not correlate with the marine tephra.