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Climate changes during the mid- to late-Holocene, after the last vestiges of glacial ice sheets dwindled, provide important context for climate change today. In the tropical Andes, most of the continuous paleoclimate records covering the late Holocene are derived from the oxygen isotope composition of ice cores, speleothems, and lake carbonates. These archives are powerful recorders of large-scale changes in circulation and monsoon intensity, but they do not necessarily capture local moisture balance, and so reconstructions of local precipitation and aridity remain scarce. Here we present contrasting histories of local effective moisture vs. regional circulation from several new biomarker records preserved in lakes and peat in the Colombian and Peruvian Andes. We focus on the hydrogen isotope composition of long-chain plant waxes, which reflects precipitation δ2H similarly to δ18O from ice cores and speleothems; and the δ13C of waxes and the δ2H of mid-chain waxes, which reflect local water stress and effective moisture. In both the Northern and Southern Hemisphere tropical Andes, fairly gradual δ2H shifts during the late Holocene indicate a progressive intensification of circulation in the South American lowlands. On the other hand, plant wax δ13C and mid-chain δ2H records indicate abrupt transitions into and out of intervals of water stress and aridity – similar to findings from pollen and sediment lithology from elsewhere in the tropical Andes. We draw on climate models and proxy data syntheses to help reconcile these curiously different accounts of effective moisture in the tropical Andes since the mid-Holocene and discuss implications for modern climate research. 

Abstract The impact of latitudinal variations in the Intertropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ) on northern Andean hydroclimate during the Medieval Climate Anomaly (MCA; 950–1,150 CE) and Little Ice Age (LIA; 1,300–1,850 CE) is uncertain. Synthesis of two new lacustrine paleoclimate records from the Eastern Colombian Andes with existing circum‐Andean records shows that effective moisture anomalies were synchronous and in phase across the tropical Andes during the last millennium. During the MCA, when the ITCZ was shifted northward, topographically controlled responses in the northern Andes to vigorous atmospheric convection resulted in low precipitation and high evaporation, while precipitation was also reduced in the southern tropical Andes. During the LIA, precipitation decreased in the northern Andes as the ITCZ migrated southward but was offset by cooling that lowered evaporation, establishing high effective moisture. In the southern tropical Andes, the southward ITCZ position simultaneously strengthened precipitation, increasing effective moisture. MCA‐like responses to continued warming trends could similarly reduce northern Andean precipitation while increasing evaporation, thereby lowering effective moisture and possibly reducing water resource availability. 

We present oxygen isotope and charcoal accumulation records from two lakes in eastern Washington that have sufficient temporal resolution to quantitatively compare with tree‐ring records and meteorological data. Hydroclimate reconstructions from tree‐rings and lake sediments show close correspondence after accounting for seasonal‐ to centennial‐ scale temporal sensitivities. Carbonate δ¹⁸O measurements from Castor and Round lakes reveal that the Medieval Climate Anomaly (MCA) experienced wetter November‐March conditions than the Little Ice Age (LIA). Charcoal records from Castor, Round, and nearby lakes show elevated fire activity during the LIA compared to the MCA. Increased multidecadal hydroclimate variability after 1250 CE is evident in proxy records throughout western North America. In the Upper Columbia River Basin, multidecadal wet periods during the LIA may have enhanced fuel loads that burned in subsequent dry periods. A notable decline in biomass burning occurred with Euro‐American settlement in the late nineteenth century.