Combined dendro-documentary evidence of Central European hydroclimatic springtime extremes over the last millennium
| Authors | |
|---|---|
| Year of publication | 2011 |
| Type | Article in Periodical |
| Magazine / Source | Quaternary Science Reviews |
| MU Faculty or unit | |
| Citation | |
| Doi | http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.quascirev.2011.10.010 |
| Field | Atmosphere sciences, meteorology |
| Keywords | climate change;dendroarchaeology;dendroclimatology;documentary evidence;drought spells;forest growth;historical climatology;paleoclimatic reconstruction |
| Description | Here we introduce and analyze 11,873 annually resolved and absolutely dated ring width measurement series from living and historical fir trees sampled across France, Switzerland, Germany, and the Czech Republic, which continuously span the AD 962-2007 period. Even though a dominant climatic driver of European fir growth was not found, ring width extremes were evidently triggered by anomalous variations in Central European April-June precipitation. Documentary evidence independently confirms many of the dendro signals over the past millennium, and further provides insight on causes and consequences of ambient weather conditions related to the reconstructed extremes. This joint dendro-documentary approach not only allows extreme climate conditions of the industrial era to be placed against the backdrop of natural variations, but also probably helps to constrain climate model simulations over exceptional long timescales. |
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