Arctic coastal landscapes, like those in northernmost Alaska, often contain saline sediments that are more prone to thawing. We studied six sediment cores to understand how thawing and salinity affect organic carbon breakdown and land change. Our results show that salinity speeds up organic matter loss when permafrost thaws. This highlights the overlooked risk of salinity in shaping Arctic landscapes and carbon release as the climate continues to warm.

With regard to global warming, an understanding of past temperature changes is becoming increasingly important. Branched glycerol dialkyl glycerol tetraethers (brGDGTs) are membrane lipids used globally to reconstruct lake water temperatures. In the Bale Mountains lakes, we find a unique composition of brGDGT isomers. We present a modified local calibration and a new high-altitude temperature reconstruction from the Horn of Africa spanning the last 12.5 kyr.

Charcoals and leaf waxes from vegetation accumulate in the soil and provide information about past vegetation because they are mostly resistant against physical and biological degradation. Analyzing and comparing ratios of both element types helped us to improve the evidence for vegetation reconstruction. We found that the accumulation processes and preservation of these elements depend on different environmental conditions at forest- and steppe-dominated sites in the Mongolian forest–steppe.

Faecal biomarker analyses present a useful tool in geoarcheological research. For a better understanding of the lives of our ancestors in alpine regions, we investigated modern livestock faeces and Holocene soils at the prehistorical encampment site of Ullafelsen in the Fotsch Valley, Stubai Alps, Austria. Initial results show a high input of livestock faeces and a negligible input of human faeces for this archeological site. Future studies will focus on mire archives in the Fotsch Valley.