| 1. |
- Duethorn, Elisabeth, et al.
(författare)
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Influence of micro-site conditions on tree-ring climate signals and trends in central and northern Sweden
- 2013
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Ingår i: Trees. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 0931-1890 .- 1432-2285. ; 27:5, s. 1395-1404
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Tree-ring chronologies are important indicators of pre-instrumental, natural climate variability. Some of the longest chronologies are from northern Fennoscandia, where ring width measurement series from living trees are combined with series from sub-fossil trees, preserved in shallow lakes, to form millennial-length records. We here assess the recent ends of such timeseries by comparing climate signals and growth characteristics in central and northern Sweden, of (1) trees growing at lakeshore micro-sites (representing the source of sub-fossil material of supra-long chronologies), with (2) trees collected in dryer micro-sites several meters inland. Calibration trials reveal a predominating June-September temperature signal in N-Sweden and a weaker but significant May-September precipitation signal in C-Sweden. At the micro-site level, the temperature signal in N-Sweden is stronger in the lakeshore trees compared to the inland trees, whereas the precipitation signal in C-Sweden remains unchanged among the lakeshore and inland trees. Tree-rings at cambial ages > 40 years are also substantially wider in the lakeshore micro-site in C-Sweden, and juvenile rings are more variable (and wider) in the dryer micro-site in N-Sweden (compared to the adjacent micro-sites). By combining the data of the various micro-sites with relict samples spanning the past 1,000 years, we demonstrate that growth rate differences at the micro-site scale can affect the low frequency trends of millennial-length chronologies. For the supra-long chronologies from northern Fennoscandia, that are derived from sub-fossil lake material, it is recommended to combine these data with measurement series from only lakeshore trees.
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| 2. |
- Esper, Jan, et al.
(författare)
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European summer temperature response to annually dated volcanic eruptions over the past nine centuries
- 2013
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Ingår i: Bulletin of Volcanology. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 0258-8900 .- 1432-0819. ; 75:7, s. 736-
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The drop in temperature following large volcanic eruptions has been identified as an important component of natural climate variability. However, due to the limited number of large eruptions that occurred during the period of instrumental observations, the precise amplitude of post-volcanic cooling is not well constrained. Here we present new evidence on summer temperature cooling over Europe in years following volcanic eruptions. We compile and analyze an updated network of tree-ring maximum latewood density chronologies, spanning the past nine centuries, and compare cooling signatures in this network with exceptionally long instrumental station records and state-of-the-art general circulation models. Results indicate post-volcanic June-August cooling is strongest in Northern Europe 2 years after an eruption (-0.52 +/- 0.05 degrees C), whereas in Central Europe the temperature response is smaller and occurs 1 year after an eruption (-0.18 +/- 0.07 degrees C). We validate these estimates by comparison with the shorter instrumental network and evaluate the statistical significance of post-volcanic summer temperature cooling in the context of natural climate variability over the past nine centuries. Finding no significant post-volcanic temperature cooling lasting longer than 2 years, our results question the ability of large eruptions to initiate long-term temperature changes through feedback mechanisms in the climate system. We discuss the implications of these findings with respect to the response seen in general circulation models and emphasize the importance of considering well-documented, annually dated eruptions when assessing the significance of volcanic forcing on continental-scale temperature variations.
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| 3. |
- Esper, Jan, et al.
(författare)
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Northern European summer temperature variations over the Common Era from integrated tree-ring density records
- 2014
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Ingår i: Journal of Quaternary Science. - : Wiley. - 0267-8179 .- 1099-1417. ; 29:5, s. 487-494
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Tree-ring chronologies of maximum latewood density are most suitable to reconstruct annually resolved summer temperature variations of the late Holocene. The two longest such chronologies have been developed in northern Europe stretching back to the 2nd century BC, and the 5th century AD. We show where similarities between the two chronologies exist, and combine portions of both into a new summer temperature reconstruction for the Common Era. To minimize the transfer of potential biases, we assess the contribution of the candidate reconstructions' measurements, and exclude data (i) from exceptionally young and old trees, and (ii) produced by different laboratory technologies. Our new composite reconstruction reveals warmer conditions during Roman, Medieval and recent times, separated by prolonged cooling during the Migration period and Little Ice Age. Twentieth century warmth, as indicated in one of the existing density records, is reduced in the new reconstruction, also affecting the overall, millennial-scale, cooling trend over the late Holocene (-0.30 degrees C per 1000 years). Due to the reduced biological memory, typical for tree-ring density measurements, the new reconstruction is most suitable for evaluating the rate and speed of abrupt summer cooling following large volcanic eruptions.
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| 4. |
- Esper, Jan, et al.
(författare)
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Ranking of tree-ring based temperature reconstructions of the past millennium
- 2016
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Ingår i: Quaternary Science Reviews. - : Elsevier BV. - 0277-3791 .- 1873-457X. ; 145, s. 134-151
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Tree-ring chronologies are widely used to reconstruct high-to low-frequency variations in growing season temperatures over centuries to millennia. The relevance of these timeseries in large-scale climate reconstructions is often determined by the strength of their correlation against instrumental temperature data. However, this single criterion ignores several important quantitative and qualitative characteristics of tree-ring chronologies. Those characteristics are (i) data homogeneity, (ii) sample replication, (iii) growth coherence, (iv) chronology development, and (v) climate signal including the correlation with instrumental data. Based on these 5 characteristics, a reconstruction-scoring scheme is proposed and applied to 39 published, millennial-length temperature reconstructions from Asia, Europe, North America, and the Southern Hemisphere. Results reveal no reconstruction scores highest in every category and each has their own strengths and weaknesses. Reconstructions that perform better overall include N-Scan and Finland from Europe, E-Canada from North America, Yamal and Dzhelo from Asia. Reconstructions performing less well include W-Himalaya and Karakorum from Asia, Tatra and S-Finland from Europe, and Great Basin from North America. By providing a comprehensive set of criteria to evaluate tree-ring chronologies we hope to improve the development of large-scale temperature reconstructions spanning the past millennium. All reconstructions and their corresponding scores are provided at www.blogs.uni-mainz.de/fb09climatology.
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| 5. |
- Hartl, Claudia, et al.
(författare)
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Micro-site conditions affect Fennoscandian forest growth
- 2021
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Ingår i: Dendrochronologia. - : Elsevier BV. - 1125-7865 .- 1612-0051. ; 65
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The long tradition of dendroclimatological studies in Fennoscandia is fostered by the exceptional longevity and temperature sensitivity of tree growth, as well as the existence of well-preserved subfossil wood in shallow lakes and extent peat bogs. Although some of the world’s longest ring width and density-based climate reconstructions have been developed in northern Fennoscandia, it is still unclear if differences in micro-site ecology matter, and if so, whether they have been considered sufficiently in previous studies. We developed a Fennoscandia-wide network of 44 Scots pine ring width chronologies from 22 locations between 59°–70 °N and 16°–31 °E, to assess the effects of moist lakeshores and dry inland micro-sites on tree growth. Our network reveals a strong dependency of pine growth on July temperature, which is also reflected in latitude. Differences in forest productivity between moist and dry micro-sites are likely caused by associated effects on soil temperature. While trees at moist micro-sites at western locations exhibit higher growth rates, this pattern is reversed in the continental eastern part of the network, where increased ring widths are found at drier sites. In addition to the latitudinal increase in growth sensitivity to July temperature, pines at moist sites exhibit an increased dependency of summer warmth. The highest temperature sensitivity and growth coherency, and thus greatest suitability for summer temperature reconstructions, is found in those regions where July mean temperatures range between 11.5 and 13.5 °C, and May precipitation totals do not exceed 100 mm. Our study not only provides guidance for the selection of sampling sites for tree ring-based climate reconstructions, but also reveals the effect of micro-site ecology on Fennoscandian forest growth. The manifestation of micro-site effects varies substantially over the Fennoscandian boreal forest and is predominately triggered by the geographical setting of the stand as expressed by differing abiotic site factors.
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| 6. |
- Helama, Samuli, et al.
(författare)
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Disentangling the Evidence of Milankovitch Forcing From Tree-Ring and Sedimentary Records
- 2022
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Ingår i: Frontiers in Earth Science. - : Frontiers Media SA. - 2296-6463. ; 10
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Tree-ring records constitute excellent high-resolution data and provide valuable information for climate science and paleoclimatology. Tree-ring reconstructions of past temperature variations agree to show evidence for annual-to-centennial anomalies in past climate and place the industrial-era warming in the context of the late Holocene climate patterns and regimes. Despite their wide use in paleoclimate research, however, tree rings have also been deemed unsuitable as low-frequency indicators of past climate. The arising debate concerns whether the millennia-long tree-ring records show signals of orbital forcing due to the Milankovitch cycles. Here, we produce a summer-temperature reconstruction from tree-ring chronology running through mid- and late-Holocene times (since 5486 BCE) comprising minimum blue channel light intensity (BI). The BI reconstruction correlates with existing and new tree-ring chronologies built from maximum latewood density (MXD) and, unlike the MXD data, shows temperature trends on Milankovitch scales comparable to various types of sedimentary proxy across the circumpolar Arctic. Our results demonstrate an unrevealed potential of novel, unconventional tree-ring variables to contribute to geoscience and climate research by their capability to provide paleoclimate estimates from inter-annual scales up to those relevant to orbital forcing.
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