A global perspective on the climate‐driven growth synchrony of neighbouring trees

2 .pdf files: File 1. Author's article final version, Post-Print (19 Pags.- 4 Figs.- 2 Tabls.). File 2. Supplementary Materials (3 Figs.- 2 Tabls.- 1 Model Equation).

Using machine learning on tree-ring data to determine the geographical provenance of historical construction timbers

Funder: Bavarian Climate Research Network (BayKliF)

Climate signals in carbon and oxygen isotope ratios of Pinus cembra tree‐ring cellulose from the Călimani Mountains, Romania

Abstract We analyze annually resolved tree-ring stable carbon (I´13C) and oxygen (I´18O) isotopic chronologies from Swiss stone pine (Pinus cembra L.) in Romania. The chronologies cover the period between 1876 and 2012 and integrate data from four individual trees from the Calimani Mts in the eastern Carpathians where climatic records are scarce and starts only from 1961. Calibration trials show that the I´13C values correlate with local April-May relative humidity and with regional to larger scale (European) summer precipitation. I´18O correlates significantly with local relative humidity, cloud cover, maximum temperature, as well as European scale drought conditions. In all cases, the cli…

Scientific Merits and Analytical Challenges of Tree‐Ring Densitometry

X-ray microdensitometry on annually resolved tree-ring samples has gained an exceptional position in last-millennium paleoclimatology through the maximum latewood density (MXD) parameter, but also increasingly through other density parameters. For 50 years, X-ray based measurement techniques have been the de facto standard. However, studies report offsets in the mean levels for MXD measurements derived from different laboratories, indicating challenges of accuracy and precision. Moreover, reflected visible light-based techniques are becoming increasingly popular, and wood anatomical techniques are emerging as a potentially powerful pathway to extract density information at the highest resol…

Annually resolved δ<sup>2</sup>H tree-ring chronology of the lignin methoxyl groups from Germany reflects averaged Western European surface air temperature changes

Abstract. Stable hydrogen isotopes ratios of lignin methoxyl groups (expressed as δ2HLM) of wood have been shown to reflect the climate-sensitive δ2H values of precipitation (expressed as δ2Hprecip) modulated by a large uniform negative isotope fractionation. However, a detailed calibration study among temporal variabilities of δ2HLM in tree-ring series, site-specific δ2Hprecip and climate parameters has not been performed yet. Here, we present annually resolved δ2HLM values from nine tree-ring series (derived from four Fagus sylvatica L. trees) collected near stations of the Global Isotope Network of Isotopes in Precipitation (GNIP) and the Deutsche Wetterdienst (DWD) meteorological observ…

The temperature sensitivity along elevational gradients is more stable in maximum latewood density than tree-ring width

Annually resolved δ2H tree-ring chronology of the lignin methoxyl groups from Germany reflects averaged Western European surface air temperature changes

Stable hydrogen isotopes ratios of lignin methoxyl groups (expressed as δ2HLM) of wood have been shown to reflect the climate-sensitive δ2H values of precipitation (expressed as δ2Hprecip) modulated by a large uniform negative isotope fractionation. However, a detailed calibration study among temporal variabilities of δ2HLM in tree-ring series, site-specific δ2Hprecip and climate parameters has not been performed yet. Here, we present annually resolved δ2HLM values from nine tree-ring series (derived from four Fagus sylvatica L. trees) collected near stations of the Global Isotope Network of Isotopes in Precipitation (GNIP) and the Deutsche Wetterdienst (…

Tree-ring δ2H values from lignin methoxyl groups indicate sensitivity to European-scale temperature changes

Abstract Stable hydrogen isotope ratios of lignin methoxyl groups (δ2HLM) of wood have been shown to reflect climate-sensitive δ2H values of precipitation (δ2Hprecip). However, a detailed calibration study between high-resolution δ2HLM and δ2Hprecip data has not been performed yet. Here, we present annually resolved δ2HLM values from nine tree-ring series (derived from four Fagus sylvatica L. trees) collected near a station of the Global Isotope Network of Isotopes in Precipitation (GNIP) and the meteorological observatory at Hohenpeisenberg (Germany; ~48°N, 11°E). The nine δ2HLM tree-ring series show highly significant inter-series correlations (Rbar = 0.52) over the common period of overl…

Warfare dendrochronology: Trees witness the deployment of the German battleship Tirpitz in Norway

Abstract War has an immediate and obvious effect on people and communities, but its impacts on local ecology can be more subtle. This paper shows how one military encounter in the Second World War has left a clear legacy in the northern forests of Norway, trackable more than seventy years later. We used annual growth rings of ∼180 pine and ∼30 birch trees as witnesses of the deployment of the German battleship Tirpitz at the Kafjord. The Tirpitz was the target of several Allied air attacks, but the Kriegsmarine (German navy from 1935 to 1945) used artificial smoke, consisting of chlorosulfonic acid and zinc/hexachloroethane, to hide the ship. These smoke-screen actions throughout 1944 cause…

The significance of climate variability on early modern European grain prices

AbstractGrain was the most important food source in early modern Europe (c. 1500–1800), and its price influenced the entire economy. The extent to which climate variability determined grain price variations remains contested, and claims of solar cycle influences on prices are disputed. We thoroughly reassess these questions, within a framework of comprehensive statistical analysis, by employing an unprecedentedly large grain price data set together with state-of-the-art palaeoclimate reconstructions and long meteorological series. A highly significant negative grain price–temperature relationship (i.e. colder = high prices and vice versa) is found across Europe. This association increases a…

Micro-site conditions affect Fennoscandian forest growth

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 moi…

A 1286‐year hydro‐climate reconstruction for the Balkan Peninsula

We present a June-July drought reconstruction based on the standardized precipitation index (SPI) for the Balkan Peninsula over the period 730-2015 CE. The reconstruction is developed using a compo ...

Past millennium hydroclimate variability from Corsican pine tree‐ring chronologies

Reduced Temperature Sensitivity of Maximum Latewood Density Formation in High-Elevation Corsican Pines under Recent Warming

Maximum latewood density (MXD) measurements from long-lived Black pines (Pinus nigra spp. laricio) growing at the upper treeline in Corsica are one of the few archives to reconstruct southern European summer temperatures at annual resolution back into medieval times. Here, we present a compilation of five MXD chronologies from Corsican pines that contain high-to-low frequency variability between 1168 and 2016 CE and correlate significantly (p &lt