International audienceIn this paper we explore a speleothem δ¹⁸O record from Palestina cave, northwestern Peru, at a site on the eastern side of the Andes cordillera, in the upper Amazon Basin. The δ¹⁸O record is interpreted as a proxy for South American Summer Monsoon (SASM) intensity and allows the reconstruction of its variability during the last 1600 years. Two periods of anomalous changes in the climate mean state corresponding to the Medieval Climate Anomaly (MCA) and the Little Ice Age (LIA) periods identified in the Northern Hemisphere are recognized in the record, in which decreased and increased SASM activity, respectively, have been documented. Variations in SASM activity between the MCA and the LIA seem to be larger over the northern part of the continent, suggesting a latitudinal dependence of the MCA footprint. Our results, based on time series, composite and wavelet analyses, suggest that the Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation (AMO) plays an relevant role for SASM modulation on multidecadal scales (∼65 years), especially during dry periods such as the MCA. Composite analyses, applied to evaluate the influence of the AMO on the Palestina cave δ¹⁸O and other δ¹⁸O-derived SASM reconstructions, allow insight into the spatial footprints of the AMO over tropical South America and highlight differences between records during key studied periods. This work also reveals that replicating regional climate signals from different sites, and using different proxies is absolutely essential for a comprehensive understanding of past changes in SASM activity

The long term response of ancient societies to climate change has been a matter of global debate. Until recently, the lack of integrative studies between archaeological, palaeoecological, and palaeoclimatological data had prevented an evaluation of the relationship between climate change, distinct subsistence strategies, and cultural transformations across the largest rainforest of the world, Amazonia. Here, we review the most relevant cultural changes seen in the archaeological record of six different regions within Greater Amazonia during late pre-Columbian times. We compare the chronology of those cultural transitions with high-resolution regional palaeoclimate proxies, showing that, while some societies faced major reorganisation during periods of climate change, others were unaffected and even flourished. We propose that societies with intensive, specialised land-use systems were vulnerable to transient climate change. In contrast, land-use systems that relied primarily on polyculture agroforestry, resulting in the formation of enriched forests and fertile Amazonian Dark Earths in the long term, were more resilient to climate change.

Two well-dated δ 18 O-speleothem records from Shatuca cave, situated on the northeastern flank of the Peruvian Andes (1960 m asl) were used to reconstruct high-resolution changes in precipitation during the Holocene in the South American Summer Monsoon region (SASM). The records show that precipitation increased gradually throughout the Holocene in parallel with the austral summer insolation trend modulated by the precession cycle. Additionally the Shatuca speleothem record shows several hydroclimatic changes on both longer-and shorterterm time scales, some of which have not been described in previous paleoclimatic reconstructions from the Andean region. Such climate episodes, marked by negative excursions