Abstract. An update is provided of Northern Hemisphere (NH) spring (March, April) snow cover extent (SCE) over the 1922–2010 period incorporating the new climate data record (CDR) version of the NOAA weekly SCE dataset, with annual 95% confidence intervals estimated from regression analysis and intercomparison of multiple datasets. The uncertainty analysis indicates a 95% confidence interval in NH spring SCE of ±5–10% over the pre-satellite period and ±3–5% over the satellite era. The multi-dataset analysis shows larger uncertainties monitoring spring SCE over Eurasia (EUR) than North America (NA) due to the more complex regional character of the snow cover variability and larger between-dataset variability over northern Europe and north-central Russia. Trend analysis of the updated SCE series provides evidence that NH spring snow cover extent has undergone significant reductions over the past ~90 yr and that the rate of decrease has accelerated over the past 40 yr. The rate of decrease in March and April NH SCE over the 1970–2010 period is ~0.8 million km2 per decade corresponding to a 7% and 11% decrease in NH March and April SCE respectively from pre-1970 values. In March, most of the change is being driven by Eurasia (NA trends are not significant) but both continents exhibit significant SCE reductions in April. The observed trends in SCE are being mainly driven by warmer air temperatures, with NH mid-latitude air temperatures explaining ~50% of the variance in NH spring snow cover over the 89-yr period analyzed. However, there is also evidence that changes in atmospheric circulation around 1980 involving the North Atlantic Oscillation and Scandinavian pattern have contributed to reductions in March SCE over Eurasia.
According to its main system-level characteristics, Yiddish belongs to the High German branch of West Germanic languages. During its development, it underwent an important influence of Hebrew. In modern times, we can distinguish three main varieties of Yiddish: (1) Western Yiddish in western German-speaking territories; (2) Yiddish spoken until the 20th century in Central Europe (Czech and East German lands), and (3) Eastern Yiddish in eastern Europe. From the point of view of Germanistics, it is appropriate to consider that the inception of Yiddish varieties corresponds to the Early New High German period (1350–1650). It was during that period that the Jewish vernacular idiom started to have system-level differences in comparison to the dialects spoken by German Christians, namely, in phonology and grammar. Before that period, differences surely existed in such domains, surface level for any language, as orthography and lexicon. The German dialects from southern Germany represent the linguistic basis for Western Yiddish. The medieval Bohemian dialect of German represents the linguistic basis for Yiddish spoken in Central Europe and eastern Europe. Due to permanent contacts with the Slavic Christian population, Eastern Yiddish underwent numerous changes in all of its systems due to the strong influence of Polish, Ukrainian, and Belarusian. It eventually branched into three subdialects: Lithuanian Yiddish, Polish Yiddish, and Ukrainian Yiddish. In modern times, in numerous countries the decline of the use of Yiddish as a living language was related to the assimilation of local Jews to the culture of the Gentile majority. At the end of the 18th century and during the 19th century it was the case in various German-speaking provinces of Central Europe and western Europe where local Jews abandoned Yiddish in favor to German. Similar shifts to the dominant non-Jewish languages took place during the 20th century in various western European countries. In the USSR, during the 1920s and the 1930s the shift to Russian was already well advanced. For those who survived the Holocaust, the assimilation accelerated during the following decades. In Poland, Lithuania, Hungary, and Romania, Yiddish-speaking communities were decimated by the Holocaust. In North America, most immigrant families shifted to English within a generation or two. Yet, because of a permanent influx of masses of native speakers between the 1880s and the 1920s, Yiddish was actively used until the mid-20th century even in certain secular Jewish groups. However, during the second half of the 20th century its decline was accelerated outside of certain Haredi groups.
Abstract. Little is known about the terrestrial response of high-latitude Scandinavian vegetation to the warmer-than-present climate of the late Pliocene (Piacenzian, 3.60–2.58 Ma). In order to assess Piacenzian terrestrial climate variability, we present the first high-resolution reconstruction of vegetation and climate change in northern Norway between 3.6 and 3.14 Ma. The reconstructions are derived from pollen assemblages in the marine sediments of ODP Hole 642B, Norwegian Sea (67° N). The palynological assemblages provide a unique record of latitudinal and altitudinal shifting of the forest boundaries, with vegetation alternating between cool temperate forest during warmer-than-present intervals and boreal forest similar to today during cooler intervals. The northern boundary of the nemoral to boreonemoral forest zone was displaced at least 4–8° further north, and warmest-month temperatures were 6–14.5 °C higher than at present during warm phases. Warm climatic conditions persisted during the earliest Piacenzian (ca. 3.6–3.47 Ma) with diverse cool temperate nemoral to boreonemoral forests growing in the lowlands of the Scandinavian mountains. A distinct cooling event at ca. 3.47 Ma resulted in a southward shift of vegetation zones, leading to the predominance of boreal forest and the development of open, low alpine environments. The cooling culminated around 3.3 Ma, coinciding with Marine Isotope Stage (MIS) M2. Warmer climate conditions returned after ca. 3.29 Ma, with higher climate variability indicated by the repeated expansion of forests and peatlands during warmer and cooler periods, respectively. Climate progressively cooled after 3.18 Ma, resembling climatic conditions during MIS M2. A high variability of Norwegian vegetation and climate changes during the Piacenzian is superimposed on a long-term cooling trend. This cooling was accompanied by an expansion of Sphagnum peatlands that potentially contributed to the decline in atmospheric CO2 concentrations at the end of the Piacenzian warm period and facilitated ice growth through positive vegetation–snow albedo feedbacks. Correlations with other Northern Hemisphere vegetation records suggest hemisphere-wide effects of climate cooling.
Abstract During the Pleistocene the Scandinavian ice sheet drained huge quantities of sediment-laden meltwaters. These meltwaters supplied ice-marginal valleys that formed parallel to the front of the ice sheet. Not without significance was the supply of ice-marginal valleys from extraglacial rivers in the south. Moreover, periglacial conditions during and after sedimentation in ice-marginal valleys, the morphology of valley bedrocks, and erosion of older sediments played important roles in the depositional scenarios, and in the mineralogical composition of the sediments. The mechanisms that controlled the supply and deposition in ice-marginal valleys were analysed on the basis of a Pleistocene ice-marginal valley that was supplied by northern and southern source areas in the immediate vicinity. Investigations were conducted in one of the largest ice-marginal valleys of the Polish-German lowlands, i.e., the Toruń-Eberswalde ice-marginal valley, in sandurs (Drawa and Gwda) supplied sediments and waters from the north into this valley, and on extraglacial river terraces (pre-Noteć and pre-Warta rivers), formed simultaneously with the sandurs and ice-marginal valley (Pomeranian phase of Weichselian glaciation) supplied sediments and waters from the south into this valley. A much debated question is how similar, or different, depositional processes and sediments were that contributed to the formation of the Toruń-Eberswalde ice-marginal valley, and whether or not it is possible to differentiate mostly rapidly aggraded sandur sediments from ice-marginal valley sediments. Another question addresses the contribution of extraglacial feeding of the Toruń-Eberswalde ice-marginal valley. These matters were addressed by a wide range of analyses: sediment texture and structure, architectural elements of sediments, frequency of sedimentary successions, heavy-mineral analysis (both transparent and opaque heavy minerals), analysis of rounding and frosting of quartz grains, and palaeohydrological calculations. Additionally, a statistical analysis was used. The specific depositional conditions of distribution of sediments in ice-marginal valley allow to distinguish new environment of ice-marginal valley braided river. The spectrum of depositional conditions in the Toruń-Eberswalde ice-marginal valley and their specific palaeohydraulic parameters allow to distinguish three coexisting zones in the ice-marginal valley braided-river system: (1) deep gravel-bed braided channel zone with extensive scours, (2) deep sand-bed braided channel zone with transverse bars, and (3) marginal sand-bed and gravel-bed braided channel zone with diamicton and breccia deposition, which were characterised in detail. Some of the results have been published previously, which is why they are discussed in the present paper within the context of new data