1. |
- Büntgen, Ulf, et al.
(author)
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Recent European drought extremes beyond Common Era background variability
- 2021
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In: Nature Geoscience. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 1752-0894 .- 1752-0908. ; 14:4, s. 190-196
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Europe's recent summer droughts have had devastating ecological and economic consequences, but the severity and cause of these extremes remain unclear. Here we present 27,080 annually resolved and absolutely dated measurements of tree-ring stable carbon and oxygen (delta C-13 and delta O-18) isotopes from 21 living and 126 relict oaks (Quercus spp.) used to reconstruct central European summer hydroclimate from 75 bce to 2018 ce. We find that the combined inverse delta C-13 and delta O-18 values correlate with the June-August Palmer Drought Severity Index from 1901-2018 at 0.73 (P < 0.001). Pluvials around 200, 720 and 1100 ce, and droughts around 40, 590, 950 and 1510 ce and in the twenty-first century, are superimposed on a multi-millennial drying trend. Our reconstruction demonstrates that the sequence of recent European summer droughts since 2015 ce is unprecedented in the past 2,110 years. This hydroclimatic anomaly is probably caused by anthropogenic warming and associated changes in the position of the summer jet stream. European summer droughts in recent years are anomalously severe compared with those of the previous 2,000 years, according to a synthesis of annually resolved tree-ring carbon and oxygen isotope records.
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2. |
- Esper, Jan, et al.
(author)
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LONG-TERM SUMMER TEMPERATURE VARIATIONS IN THE PYRENEES FROM DETRENDED STABLE CARBON ISOTOPES
- 2015
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In: Geochronometria. - : Walter de Gruyter GmbH. - 1733-8387 .- 1897-1695. ; 42:1, s. 53-59
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Substantial effort has recently been put into the development of climate reconstructions from tree-ring stable carbon isotopes, though the interpretation of long-term trends retained in such timeseries remains challenging. Here we use detrended delta C-13 measurements in Pinus uncinata tree-rings, from the Spanish Pyrenees, to reconstruct decadal variations in summer temperature back to the 13th century. The June-August temperature signal of this reconstruction is attributed using decadally as well as annually resolved, 20th century delta C-13 data. Results indicate that late 20th century warming has not been unique within the context of the past 750 years. Our reconstruction contains greater amplitude than previous reconstructions derived from traditional tree-ring density data, and describes particularly cool conditions during the late 19th century. Some of these differences, including early warm periods in the 14th and 17th centuries, have been retained via d13C timeseries detrending - a novel approach in tree-ring stable isotope chronology development. The overall reduced variance in earlier studies points to an underestimation of pre-instrumental summer temperature variability derived from traditional tree-ring parameters.
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3. |
- Konter, Oliver, et al.
(author)
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Climate sensitivity and parameter coherency in annually resolved delta C-13 and delta O-18 from Pinus uncinata tree-ring data in the Spanish Pyrenees
- 2014
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In: Chemical Geology. - : Elsevier BV. - 0009-2541 .- 1872-6836. ; 377, s. 12-19
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- We explore the 20th century climate sensitivity of annually resolved carbon and oxygen isotope ratios in five Pinus uncinata individuals from the upper treeline in similar to 2400 m asl of the Spanish Pyrenees. Time series of delta C-13 and delta O-18 are calibrated against temperature, precipitation, and drought indices over the period 1901-2009. Negative correlations of delta C-13 with summer precipitation and drought indices, as well as positive correlations with summer temperatures, confirm previous evidence from similar habitats in the Pyrenees. In contrast to this summer climate signal in the carbon isotopes, the delta O-18 record reveals mainly negative correlations with spring precipitation and drought. We explore the coherence between delta C-13 and delta O-18 time series derived from individual trees and assess the influence of widely applied delta C-13 correction procedures on the climate signal strength. Spatial correlation patterns and decomposition of the time series into high-and low-frequency components are used to develop a calibration setup for carbon and oxygen isotope ratios, which will improve long-term climate reconstructions in a region, where classical tree-ring width and density data are limited.
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4. |
- Saurer, Matthias, et al.
(author)
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Spatial variability and temporal trends in water-use efficiency of European forests
- 2014
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In: Global Change Biology. - : Wiley. - 1354-1013 .- 1365-2486. ; 20:12, s. 3700-3712
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- The increasing carbon dioxide (CO2) concentration in the atmosphere in combination with climatic changes throughout the last century are likely to have had a profound effect on the physiology of trees: altering the carbon and water fluxes passing through the stomatal pores. However, the magnitude and spatial patterns of such changes in natural forests remain highly uncertain. Here, stable carbon isotope ratios from a network of 35 tree-ring sites located across Europe are investigated to determine the intrinsic water-use efficiency (iWUE), the ratio of photosynthesis to stomatal conductance from 1901 to 2000. The results were compared with simulations of a dynamic vegetation model (LPX-Bern 1.0) that integrates numerous ecosystem and land-atmosphere exchange processes in a theoretical framework. The spatial pattern of tree-ring derived iWUE of the investigated coniferous and deciduous species and the model results agreed significantly with a clear south-to-north gradient, as well as a general increase in iWUE over the 20th century. The magnitude of the iWUE increase was not spatially uniform, with the strongest increase observed and modelled for temperate forests in Central Europe, a region where summer soil-water availability decreased over the last century. We were able to demonstrate that the combined effects of increasing CO2 and climate change leading to soil drying have resulted in an accelerated increase in iWUE. These findings will help to reduce uncertainties in the land surface schemes of global climate models, where vegetation-climate feedbacks are currently still poorly constrained by observational data.
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5. |
- Treydte, Kerstin, et al.
(author)
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Recent human-induced atmospheric drying across Europe unprecedented in the last 400 years
- 2024
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In: NATURE GEOSCIENCE. - 1752-0894 .- 1752-0908. ; 17, s. 58-65
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- The vapor pressure deficit reflects the difference between how much moisture the atmosphere could and actually does hold, a factor that fundamentally affects evapotranspiration, ecosystem functioning, and vegetation carbon uptake. Its spatial variability and long-term trends under natural versus human-influenced climate are poorly known despite being essential for predicting future effects on natural ecosystems and human societies such as crop yield, wildfires, and health. Here we combine regionally distinct reconstructions of pre-industrial summer vapor pressure deficit variability from Europe's largest oxygen-isotope network of tree-ring cellulose with observational records and Earth system model simulations with and without human forcing included. We demonstrate that an intensification of atmospheric drying during the recent decades across different European target regions is unprecedented in a pre-industrial context and that it is attributed to human influence with more than 98% probability. The magnitude of this trend is largest in Western and Central Europe, the Alps and Pyrenees region, and the smallest in southern Fennoscandia. In view of the extreme drought and compound events of the recent years, further atmospheric drying poses an enhanced risk to vegetation, specifically in the densely populated areas of the European temperate lowlands. The atmosphere has dried across most regions of Europe in recent decades, a trend that can be attributed primarily to human impacts, according to tree ring records spanning 400 years and Earth system model simulations.
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