| 1. |
- Izdebski, A., et al.
(författare)
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Palaeoecological data indicates land-use changes across Europe linked to spatial heterogeneity in mortality during the Black Death pandemic
- 2022
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Ingår i: Nature Ecology & Evolution. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 2397-334X. ; :6, s. 297-306
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The Black Death (1347–1352 CE) is the most renowned pandemic in human history, believed by many to have killed half of Europe’s population. However, despite advances in ancient DNA research that conclusively identified the pandemic’s causative agent (bacterium Yersinia pestis), our knowledge of the Black Death remains limited, based primarily on qualitative remarks in medieval written sources available for some areas of Western Europe. Here, we remedy this situation by applying a pioneering new approach, ‘big data palaeoecology’, which, starting from palynological data, evaluates the scale of the Black Death’s mortality on a regional scale across Europe. We collected pollen data on landscape change from 261 radiocarbon-dated coring sites (lakes and wetlands) located across 19 modern-day European countries. We used two independent methods of analysis to evaluate whether the changes we see in the landscape at the time of the Black Death agree with the hypothesis that a large portion of the population, upwards of half, died within a few years in the 21 historical regions we studied. While we can confirm that the Black Death had a devastating impact in some regions, we found that it had negligible or no impact in others. These inter-regional differences in the Black Death’s mortality across Europe demonstrate the significance of cultural, ecological, economic, societal and climatic factors that mediated the dissemination and impact of the disease. The complex interplay of these factors, along with the historical ecology of plague, should be a focus of future research on historical pandemics.
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| 2. |
- Buntgen, U., et al.
(författare)
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Tree rings reveal globally coherent signature of cosmogenic radiocarbon events in 774 and 993 CE
- 2018
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Ingår i: Nature Communications. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 2041-1723. ; 9
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Though tree-ring chronologies are annually resolved, their dating has never been independently validated at the global scale. Moreover, it is unknown if atmospheric radiocarbon enrichment events of cosmogenic origin leave spatiotemporally consistent fingerprints. Here we measure the 14C content in 484 individual tree rings formed in the periods 770–780 and 990–1000 CE. Distinct 14C excursions starting in the boreal summer of 774 and the boreal spring of 993 ensure the precise dating of 44 tree-ring records from five continents. We also identify a meridional decline of 11-year mean atmospheric radiocarbon concentrations across both hemispheres. Corroborated by historical eye-witness accounts of red auroras, our results suggest a global exposure to strong solar proton radiation. To improve understanding of the return frequency and intensity of past cosmic events, which is particularly important for assessing the potential threat of space weather on our society, further annually resolved 14C measurements are needed.
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| 3. |
- Chen, F., et al.
(författare)
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Juniper Tree-Ring Data from the Kuramin Range (Northern Tajikistan) Reveals Changing Summer Drought Signals in Western Central Asia
- 2019
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Ingår i: Forests. - : MDPI AG. - 1999-4907. ; 10:6
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Coniferous forests cover the mountains in many parts of Central Asia and provide large potentials for dendroclimatic studies of past climate variability. However, to date, only a few tree-ring based climate reconstructions exist from this region. Here, we present a regional tree-ring chronology from the moisture-sensitive Zeravshan juniper (Juniperus seravschanica Kom.) from the Kuramin Range (Tajikistan) in western Central Asia, which is used to reveal past summer drought variability from 1650 to 2015 Common Era (CE). The chronology accounts for 40.5% of the variance of the June-July self-calibrating Palmer Drought Severity Index (scPDSI) during the instrumental period (1901 to 2012). Seven dry periods, including 1659-1696, 1705-1722, 1731-1741, 1758-1790, 1800-1842, 1860-1875, and 1931-1987, and five wet periods, including 1742-1752, 1843-1859, 1876-1913, 1921-1930, and 1988-2015, were identified. Good agreements between drought records from western and eastern Central Asia suggest that the PDSI records retain common drought signals and capture the regional dry/wet periods of Central Asia. Moreover, the spectral analysis indicates the existence of centennial (128 years), decadal (24.3 and 11.4 years), and interannual (8.0, 3.6, 2.9, and 2.0 years) cycles, which may be linked with climate forces, such as solar activity and El Nino-Southern Oscillation (ENSO). The analysis between the scPDSI reconstruction and large-scale atmospheric circulations during the reconstructed extreme dry and wet years can provide information about the linkages of extremes in our scPDSI record with the large-scale ocean-atmosphere-land circulation systems.
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| 4. |
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| 5. |
- Charpentier Ljungqvist, Fredrik, et al.
(författare)
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European warm-season temperature and hydroclimate since 850 CE
- 2019
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Ingår i: Environmental Research Letters. - : IOP Publishing. - 1748-9326. ; 14:8
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The long-term relationship between temperature and hydroclimate has remained uncertain due to the short length of instrumental measurements and inconsistent results from climate model simulations. This lack of understanding is particularly critical with regard to projected drought and flood risks. Here we assess warm-season co-variability patterns between temperature and hydroclimate over Europe back to 850 CE using instrumental measurements, tree-ring based reconstructions, and climate model simulations. We find that the temperature-hydroclimate relationship in both the instrumental and reconstructed data turns more positive at lower frequencies, but less so in model simulations, with a dipole emerging between positive (warm and wet) and negative (warm and dry) associations in northern and southern Europe, respectively. Compared to instrumental data, models reveal a more negative co-variability across all timescales, while reconstructions exhibit a more positive co-variability. Despite the observed differences in the temperature-hydroclimate co-variability patterns in instrumental, reconstructed and model simulated data, we find that all data types share relatively similar phase-relationships between temperature and hydroclimate, indicating the common influence of external forcing. The co-variability between temperature and soil moisture in the model simulations is overestimated, implying a possible overestimation of temperature-driven future drought risks.
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| 6. |
- Seim, Andrea, et al.
(författare)
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Evaluation of Tree Growth Relevant Atmospheric Circulation Patterns for Geopotential Height Field Reconstructions for Asia
- 2018
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Ingår i: Journal of Climate. - : American Meteorological Society. - 0894-8755 .- 1520-0442. ; 31:11, s. 4391-4401
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Atmospheric circulations influence local and regional weather conditions and, thus, tree growth. To identify summer weather types relevant for tree growth, and their associated synoptic-scale circulation patterns, an atmospheric circulation tree ring index (ACTI) dataset, derived from 414 tree-ring sites across Asia spanning the period 1871-2010, was created. Modes of common variability in the ACTI dataset were compared with leading modes of observed summertime 500-hPa geopotential height. The first four ACTI modes (explaining 88% of the total variance) were associated with pressure centers over Eurasia, the tropics, and the Pacific Ocean. The high spatiotemporal resemblance between the leading circulation modes, derived from both tree rings and 500-hPa geopotential height fields, indicates a strong potential for reconstructing large-scale circulation patterns from tree rings in Asia. This would allow investigations of natural atmospheric circulation variability prior to anthropogenic climate change and provide a means to validate model simulations of climate predictions.
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| 7. |
- Stiel, H., et al.
(författare)
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2D and 3D Nanoscale Imaging Using High Repetition Rate Laboratory-Based Soft X-Ray Sources
- 2018
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Ingår i: X-Ray Lasers 2016 - Proceedings of the 15th International Conference on X-Ray Lasers. - Cham : Springer International Publishing. - 9783319730240 ; 202, s. 265-272
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Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- In this contribution, we report about tomographic nanoscale imaging using a laser-produced plasma-based laboratory transmission X-ray microscope (LTXM) in the water window. The soft X-ray radiation of the LTXM is provided by a high average power laser-produced (1.3 kHz repetition rate, 0.5 ns pulse duration, 140 W average power) plasma source, a multilayer condenser mirror, an objective zone plate, and a back-illuminated CCD camera as a detector. In the second part of the contribution, we will present recent results on holography and coherent diffraction imaging using our high repetition rate X-ray laser. We will discuss advantages of these methods and its potential for nanoscale imaging.
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| 8. |
- Cook, ER, et al.
(författare)
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Old World megadroughts and pluvials during the Common Era
- 2015
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Ingår i: Science Advances. - : American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). - 2375-2548. ; 1:10
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Climate model projections suggest widespread drying in the Mediterranean Basin and wetting in Fennoscandia in the coming decades largely as a consequence of greenhouse gas forcing of climate. To place these and other “Old World” climate projections into historical perspective based on more complete estimates of natural hydroclimatic variability, we have developed the “Old World Drought Atlas” (OWDA), a set of year-to-year maps of tree-ring reconstructed summer wetness and dryness over Europe and the Mediterranean Basin during the Common Era. TheOWDAmatches historical accounts of severe drought and wetness with a spatial completeness not previously available. In addition, megadroughts reconstructed over north-central Europe in the 11th and mid-15th centuries reinforce other evidence from North America and Asia that droughts were more severe, extensive, and prolonged over Northern Hemisphere land areas before the 20th century, with an inadequate understanding of their causes. The OWDA provides new data to determine the causes of Old World drought and wetness and attribute past climate variability to forced and/or internal variability.
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| 9. |
- Ehlers, Ina, 1984-, et al.
(författare)
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Limited suppression of photorespiration by 20th century atmospheric CO2 increase in trees worldwide
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Annan publikation (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Forests are a key component of the global carbon and hydrological cycle and forest responses to environmental drivers create important feedbacks to these cycles. Photosynthetic efficiency of most forest tree species is strongly limited by photorespiration, a side reaction using O2 instead of CO2 as substrate, leading to a carbon loss for the plant. Photorespiration occurs in all trees and is reduced under elevated CO2 concentrations and increased under elevated temperature. Because the CO2 concentration of the atmosphere has increased in past decades, long-lived trees may have benefited from reduced photorespiration, but the temperature increase would have been a compensating detriment; but direct quantification of long-term changes in metabolic fluxes is lacking. Realistic forecasting of responses of trees and forests to future CO2 and temperature demands quantifying the reduction of photorespiration. In twelve tree species from five continents, we observe that photorespiration has been reduced by the CO2 increase during the past century, but for most the reduction is smaller than predicted from plant responses in CO2 alone. Comparison with data from a combined CO2 and temperature manipulation experiment shows that the reduced response can be explained by increases in leaf temperatures, which might result directly from increased air temperatures or indirectly from reduced transpirative cooling. These data suggest that global warming has already inhibited plant fertilization by increasing CO2, and that biomass increases may have been smaller than deduced from measurements of the heavy carbon isotope 13C. Observation of this centennial metabolic shift in tree physiology worldwide provides new insights into forest-climate feedbacks and can be used to improve coupled climate-vegetation models.
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| 10. |
- Fuentes, Mauricio, et al.
(författare)
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Assessing the dendroclimatic potential of Nothofagus betuloides (Magellan's beech) forests in the southernmost Chilean Patagonia
- 2019
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Ingår i: Trees-Structure and Function. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 0931-1890. ; 33:2, s. 557-575
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Key messageTree growth of Nothofagus betuloides forests south of 50 degrees S is affected by local temperature and precipitation together with large-scale high-latitude climate patterns, but also significant influences from the Tropical Pacific were found.The characterization of past climate dynamics in southern South America is difficult due to the shortness of instrumental data. However, abundant forests in the southernmost part of the continent makes it an ideal place to assess the dendroclimatological potential for developing high-resolution climate proxy time series to extend the observations back in time. Whereas the majority of dendroclimatological studies have focused on latitudes north of 50 degrees S, we present six new Magellan's beech (Nothofagus betuloides (Mirb.) Oerst.) tree-ring width (TRW) chronologies, spanning between 202 and 500years, developed from southernmost Patagonia (>50 degrees S), Chile. The climate signal in the trees was analyzed using local station data, regional sea surface temperature (SST) and large-scale atmospheric indices: the Southern Oscillation Index (SOI) and the southern annual mode (SAM). The correlations between individual site chronologies and observed summer temperatures and precipitation varied, reflecting diverse microsite conditions and local scale geographic patterns. An influence of southern Pacific SST was evident at two of the northern sites. Although the associations with SOI and SAM were weak, the influence of regional sea level pressure on tree growth in the region was evident.
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