Precipitation reconstruction using ring-width chronology of himalayan cedar from western himalaya: Preliminary results

Himalayan cedar (Cedrus deodara (D. Don) G. Don) due to its long age and wide ecological amplitude in the Himalayan region has strong dendroclimatic potential. A well replicated ring-width chronology of it, derived from the ensemble of tree-ring samples of two adjacent homogeneous sites, has been used to reconstruct precipitation for the non-monsoon months (previous year October to concurrent May) back to AD 1171. This provides the first record of hydrological conditions for the western Himalayan region, India during the whole of the ‘Little Ice Age’ and latter part of the ‘Medieval Warm Period’. The reconstruction revealed the wettest and the driest non-monsoon months during the fourteenth and the thirteenth centuries, respectively. The seventeenth century consistently recorded dry non-monsoon months in the western Himalayan region. Surplus precipitation, especially more pronounced since the 1950s, is recorded in the current century.     

Holocene History of the Bering Sea Bowhead Whale (Balaena mysticetus) in Its Beaufort Sea Summer Grounds off Southwestern Victoria Island, Western Canadian Arctic

The fossil remains of 43 bowhead whales were mapped on the raised beaches of western Wollaston Peninsula, Victoria Island, Canadian Arctic, near the historic summer range limit of the Bering Sea stock in the Beaufort Sea. The elevations and radiocarbon ages of the remains demonstrate that the bowhead ranged commonly into the region following the submergence of Bering Strait at ca. 10,000 ¹⁴C yr B.P. until ca. 8500 ¹⁴C yr B.P. During the same interval, bowheads ranged widely from the Beaufort Sea to Baffin Bay. Subsequently, no whales reached Wollaston Peninsula until ca. 1500 ¹⁴C yr B.P. Late Holocene populations evidently were small, or occupations were brief, in comparison to those of the early Holocene. Although the late Holocene recurrence may relate to the expansion of pioneering Thule whalers eastward from Alaska, there are few Thule sites and limited evidence of Thule whaling in the area surveyed to support this suggestion.