An ice core drilled on the Renland ice cap (RECAP) in east-central Greenland contains a continuous climate record dating through the last glacial period. Here we present the water isotope record for the Holocene, in which high-resolution climate information is retained for the last 8 kyr. We find that the RECAP water isotope record exhibits seasonal and decadal variability which may reflect sea surface conditions and regional climate variability.

We present a novel post Last Glacial Maximum sediment record from Moossee (Swiss Plateau, southern central Europe). For the first time, five major reorganizations of vegetation could be definitely linked to paramount postglacial temperature and/or moisture changes. Present-day beech-dominated forests have been resilient to long-term climate change and human land use. They may prevail in future if climate warming does not exceed the amplitude of Mid Holocene temperature and moisture variability.

Data assimilation is becoming more and more important for past climate reconstructions. The assimilation of monthly resolved precipitation information has not been explored much so far. In this study we analyze the impact of assimilating monthly precipitation amounts and the number of wet days within an existing paleoclimate data assimilation framework. We find increased skill in the reconstruction, suggesting that monthly precipitation can constitute valuable input for future reconstructions.