The fluvial geomorphology and stratigraphy on the middle Snake River at Bancroft Springs, Idaho, provide evidence for numerous episodes of Snake River aggradation and incision since the Bonneville Flood at ca. 18 ka. A suite of seven terraces ranging from 20–1 m above modern bankfull elevation records multiple cut-and-fill cycles during the latest Pleistocene and Holocene in response to local base-level controls, variations in sediment supply, and hydroclimate change. Radiocarbon and luminescence dating show that the ages of fluvial aggradation generally coincide with increased sediment supply and likely wetter hydroclimate during onset of the Younger Dryas stadial (ca. 13.2 ka), deglaciation and termination of the Younger Dryas stadial (ca. 11.3 ka), Early Holocene cooling (ca. 8.8 ka), and Neoglacial (ca. 4.5, 2.9, 1.1 ka). Six intervening periods of incision and channel stability may also reflect either reduced sediment supply, drier hydroclimate, or both. The terrace chronology can be correlated to a variety of local and regional paleoclimate proxy records and corresponds well with periods of continental- and global-scale rapid climate change during the Holocene. The fluvial record demonstrates the geomorphic response and sensitivity of large river systems to changes in hydroclimate variability, which has important implications for inferring paleoenvironmental conditions in the region.

Climate and tectonics effect the fluvial evolution of the Mediterranean Mut basin. The basin contains a river terrace staircase of 16 levels (T16–T1) ranging from 365 to 10 m above the current Göksu River in its middle and lower sections. These river terraces records tectonic uplift in the Mut basin. Optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) dating of the fluvial sediments of the youngest terrace (T16) provides a chronology for the assessment of the important impacts of climatic changes. The ages from the youngest river terrace deposits in T16 may be subdivided into two intervals: (1) 239–194.7 ka during the later part of Marine Oxygen Isotope Stage (MIS) 7, implying that the aggradation of T16 started in (the final phase of) this warm period; and (2) 187.9–171 ka during much of MIS 6. Thus, it appears that the Göksu River continued depositing sediment from an interglacial into a glacial time. The differences in climate-driven fluvial evolution between this Mediterranean fluvial system and the classical, well-studied temperate–periglacial river systems in Europe may be the result of different vegetation cover and greater thaw of more intense snowfalls.

The Tibetan Plateau is regarded as an amplifier and driver of environmental change in adjacent regions because of its extent and high altitude. However, reliable age control for paleoenvironmental information on the plateau is limited. OSL appears to be a valid method to constrain the age of deposits of glacial and fluvial origin, soils and periglacial structures in the Menyuan basin on the northeastern Tibetan Plateau. Dating results show glaciers advanced extensively to the foot of the Qilian mountains at ~ 21 ka, in agreement with the timing of the global Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) recorded in Northern Hemisphere ice cores. Comparison with results from the eastern Tibetan Plateau suggests that the factor controlling glacial advance in both regions was decreased temperature, not monsoon-related precipitation increase. The areas of the Menyuan basin occupied by glacio-fluvial deposits experienced continuous permafrost during the LGM, indicated by large cryoturbation features, interpreted to indicate that the mean annual temperature was ≥ 7 °C lower than at present. Glacio-fluvial systems in the Menyuan basin aggraded and terraces formed during cold periods (penultimate glaciation, LGM, and possibly the Younger Dryas) as a response to increased glacial sediment production and meltwater runoff then.