Search

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 resolution. Here we review the current understanding and merits of wood density for tree-ring research, associated microdensitometric techniques, and analytical measurement challenges. The review is further complemented with a careful comparison of new measurements derived at 17 laboratories, using several different techniques. The new experiment allowed us to corroborate and refresh "long-standing wisdom" but also provide new insights. Key outcomes include (i) a demonstration of the need for mass/volume-based recalibration to accurately estimate average ring density; (ii) a substantiation of systematic differences in MXD measurements that cautions for great care when combining density data sets for climate reconstructions; and (iii) insights into the relevance of analytical measurement resolution in signals derived from tree-ring density data. Finally, we provide recommendations expected to facilitate futureinter-comparability and interpretations for global change research.

Tree-ring chronologies underpin the majority of annually-resolved reconstructions of Common Era climate. However, they are derived using different datasets and techniques, the ramifications of which have hitherto been little explored. Here, we report the results of a double-blind experiment that yielded 15 Northern Hemisphere summer temperature reconstructions from a common network of regional tree-ring width datasets. Taken together as an ensemble, the Common Era reconstruction mean correlates with instrumental temperatures from 1794–2016 CE at 0.79 (p, Tree rings are a crucial archive for Common Era climate reconstructions, but the degree to which methodological decisions influence outcomes is not well known. Here, the authors show how different approaches taken by 15 different groups influence the ensemble temperature reconstruction from the same data.

The Arctic is one of the regions where the effect of global change is most evident. Associated with warming are changes in snow, sea ice and hydroclimate, all which have significant impacts on environments and society. However, due to short observational records, it is difficult to set the current climate in a long-term context. Arctic driftwood (DW), available throughout the Holocene, is a paleoclimate resource that may shed information on past sea-ice, ocean current and atmospheric conditions because it is transported by sea ice across the Arctic. Moreover, DW tree-ring data can be used to interpret climate in the boreal forests where the trees grew. Here we present a study of 380 DW samples collected on eastern and south-western Svalbard. Combining species identification and dendrochronology, it was found that the DW mainly consisted of Pinus sylvestris, Picea sp. and Larix sp. (87% of all samples), mainly originating from northern Russia. In total, 60% of the DW could be dated and their provenance determined, and four tree-ring width chronologies representing Yenisei and Dvina-Pechora were constructed, facilitating extension and improvement of the existing chronologies representing those regions. Moreover, DW from relict beaches that can be subjected to dendrochronological analyses, provides possibilities to extend pan-Arctic tree-ring data even further back in time. Because there are several processes governing the temporal patterns of wood deposition in the Arctic, using DW as an indicator of sea-ice variations needs further investigation.

The relationship between climate and forest is critical to understanding the influence of future climate change on terrestrial ecosystems. Research on trees at high elevations has uncovered the relationship in the Hengduan Mountains region, a critical biodiversity hotspot area in southwestern China. The relationship for the area at low elevations below 2800 m a.s.l. in the region remains unclear. In this study, we developed tree ring width chronologies of Pinus yunnanensis Franch. at five sites with elevations of 1170&ndash, 1725 m in this area. Monthly precipitation, relative humidity, maximum/mean/minimum air temperature and the standardized precipitation evapotranspiration index (SPEI), a drought indicator with a multi-timescale, were used to investigate the radial growth&mdash, climate relationship. Results show that the growth of P. yunnanensis at different sites has a similar response pattern to climate variation. Relative humidity, precipitation, and air temperature in the dry season, especially in its last month (May), are critical to the radial growth of trees. Supplemental precipitation amounts and reduced mean or maximum air temperature can promote tree growth. The high correlations between chronologies and SPEI indicate that the radial growth of trees at the low elevations of the region is significantly limited by the moisture availability. Precipitation in the last month of the previous wet season determines the drought regime in the following dry seasons. In spite of some differences in the magnitudes of correlations in the low-elevation area of the Hengduan Mountains region, chronologies generally matched well with each other at different elevations, and the differences are not evident with the change in elevation.

Maximum latewood density (MXD) chronologies have been widely used to reconstruct summer temperature variations. Precipitation signals inferred from MXD data are, however, rather scarce. In this study, we assess the potential of using MXD data derived from Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris L.) growing in the Stockholm archipelago (Sweden) to reconstruct past precipitation variability. In this area, slow-growing pine trees emerge on flat plateaus of bedrock outcrops with thin or absent soil layers and are, therefore, sensitive to moisture variability. A 268-year-long MXD chronology was produced, and climate&ndash, growth relationships show a significant and robust correlation with May&ndash, July precipitation (PMJJr = 0.64, p &lt, 0.01). The MXD based May&ndash, July precipitation reconstruction covers the period 1750&ndash, 2018 CE and explains 41% of the variance (r2) of the observed precipitation (1985&ndash, 2018). The reconstruction suggests that the region has experienced more pluvial phases than drought conditions since the 1750s. The latter half of the 18th century was the wettest and the first half of the 19th century the driest. Climate analysis of &ldquo, light rings&rdquo, (LR), latewood layers of extreme low-density cells, finds their occurrence often coincides with significantly dry (&lt, 41 mm precipitation) and warmer (1&ndash, 2 &deg, C above average temperature), May&ndash, July conditions. Our analysis suggests that these extremes may be triggered by the summer North Atlantic Oscillation (SNAO).

Standing dead trees (snags) play important roles in forest ecology by storing carbon as well as providing habitats for many species. Moreover, snags preserved for hundreds of years can provide usef ...

We test the application of parametric, non-parametric, and semi-parametric calibration models for reconstructing summer (June–August) temperature from a set of tree-ring width and density data on the same dendro samples from 40 sites across Europe. By comparing the performance of the three calibration models on pairs” of tree-ring width (TRW) and maximum density (MXD) or maximum blue intensity (MXBI), we test whether a non-linear temperature response is more prevalent in TRW or MXD (MXBI) data, and whether it is associated with the temperature sensitivity and/or autocorrelation structure of the dendro parameters. We note that MXD (MXBI) data have a significantly stronger temperature response than TRW data as well as a lower autocorrelation that is more similar to that of the instrumental temperature data, whereas TRW exhibits a redder” variability continuum. This study shows that the use of non-parametric calibration models is more suitable for TRW data, while parametric calibration is sufficient for both MXD and MXBI data – that is, we show that TRW is by far the more non-linear proxy. publishedVersion

The potential of dendrochemistry as a tool for tracing anthropogenic contamination at a glassworks site in southeastern Sweden was investigated through a multidisciplinary approach combining continuous high-resolution time series of tree rings and sediment profiles. Tree cores from Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris), Norway spruce (Picea abies) and European aspen (Populus tremula) were analysed for their elemental composition using an energy dispersive X-ray fluorescence (ED-XRF) technique. Sediment cores were sampled along a transect extending from the pollution point source to unpolluted areas and analysed using core-scanning-XRF (CS-XRF). High contaminant concentrations in the soil were found for As (≈2000 ppm), Pb (>5000 ppm), Ba (≈1000 ppm) and Cd (≈150 ppm). The concentrations decreased with depth and distance from the pollution source. The dendrochemical analyses revealed alterations in the Barium, Chlorine and Manganese profiles, allowing the identification of seven potential asynchronous releases from the glassworks. Our results suggest that differences in the response of tree species to elemental uptake together with soil chemical properties dictate the success of dendrochemistry as an environmental monitoring tool.

At the local scale, artificial impounded reservoirs in dry regions exert influence on the surrounding local climate. Impounded reservoirs have been found to alter precipitation patterns and increase temperature, specific humidity and surface evaporation. The consequences of impoundment or its related climatic changes on the surrounding vegetation are still not well understood. We here examined the potential effect on surrounding tree growth from the impoundment of the Ertan Reservoir, China, in 1998. We measured Yunnan pine tree rings at three sites on a slope close to the reservoir and two control sites far away from the reservoir. We compared the annual radial growth of tree rings at all sites with air temperature, precipitation and air humidity in the region. We also used cumulative distribution functions to quantify the probability of attributing radial growth changes to background climate variability. We find an enhancement of tree growth from 2000 to 2002, right after the reservoir's impounding in experimental and control sites. The tree growth can initially be explained by favourable conditions benefiting tree growth. However, we cannot entirely attribute such enhancement to the background climate variability when studying the relationship between tree growth and climatic variables over the 36 years and their probability of occurrence. Hence, we infer that the tree growth in the three years following impoundment can only be attributed to the simultaneous effect of favourable regional climate conditions and the reservoir's impoundment in itself. These conditions decrease vegetation stress by decreasing air temperature and increasing air relative humidity. Although the findings of this study shed more light on the environmental and climatic changes induced by the impoundment of reservoirs, they also call for the need of monitoring climatic variables in the vicinity of the reservoirs.

The Scottish pine network expansion has been an ongoing task since 2006 and funding must be acknowledged to the following projects: EU project ‘Millennium’ (017008-2), Leverhulme Trust project ‘RELiC: Reconstructing 8000 years of Environmental and Landscape change in the Cairngorms (F/00268/BG)’, the Native Oak and Pine project or ‘NOAP’ (Historic Scotland) and the NERC project ‘SCOT2K:Reconstructing 2000 years of Scottish climate from tree rings (NE/K003097/1)’. Further PhD funding for Milos Rydval is acknowledged from The Carnegie Trust. Dendroarchaeology almost exclusively uses ring-width (RW) data for dating historical structures and artefacts. Such data can be used to date tree-ring sequences when regional climate dominates RW variability. However, the signal in RW data can be obscured due to site specific ecological influences (natural and anthropogenic) that impact crossdating success. In this paper, using data from Scotland, we introduce a novel tree-ring parameter (Blue Intensity – BI) and explore its utility for facilitating dendro historical dating of conifer samples. BI is similar to latewood density as they both reflect the combined hemicellulose, cellulose and lignin content in the latewood cell walls of conifer species and the amount of these compounds is strongly controlled, at least for trees growing in temperature limited locations, by late summer temperatures. BI not only expresses a strong climate signal, but is also less impacted by site specific ecological influences. It can be concurrently produced with RW data from images of finely sanded conifer samples but at a significantly reduced cost compared to traditional latewood density. Our study shows that the probability of successfully crossdating historical samples is greatly increased using BI compared to RW. Furthermore, due to the large spatial extent of the summer temperature signal expressed by such data, a sparse multi-species conifer network of long BI chronologies across Europe could be used to date and loosely provenance imported material. Postprint

The authors wish to thank The Carnegie Trust for the Universities of Scotland for providing funding for Milos Rydval’s PhD. The Scottish pine network expansion has been an ongoing task since 2006 and funding must be acknowledged to the following projects: EU project ‘Millennium’ (017008-2), Leverhulme Trust project ‘RELiC: Reconstructing 8000 years of Environmental and Landscape change in the Cairngorms (F/00 268/BG)’ and the NERC project ‘SCOT2K: Reconstructing 2000 years of Scottish climate from tree rings (NE/K003097/1)’. We also thank Rider University for a faculty research fellowship that supported Daniel Druckenbrod, and Paul J. Krusic for compiling and making available a PC version of the point-by-point PCR software. Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory contribution No. 8032.

Despite the emergence of new high-resolution temperature reconstructions around the world, only a few cover the Medieval Climate Anomaly (MCA). Here we present C-Scan, a new Scots pine tree-ring density-based reconstruction of warm-season (April–September) temperatures for central Scandinavia back to 850 CE, extending the previous reconstruction by 250 years. C-Scan is based on samples collected in a confined mountain region, adjusted for their differences in altitude and local environment, and standardised using the new RSFi algorithm to preserve low-frequency signals. In C-Scan, the warm peak of MCA occurs ca. 1000–1100 CE, and the Little Ice Age (LIA) between 1550 and 1900 CE. Moreover, during the last millennium the coldest decades are found around 1600 CE, and the warmest 10 and 30 years occur in the most recent century. By comparing C-Scan with other millennium-long temperature reconstructions from Fennoscandia, regional differences in multi-decadal temperature variability, especially during the warm period of the last millennium are revealed. Although these differences could be due to methodological reasons, they may indicate asynchronous warming patterns across Fennoscandia. Further investigation of these regional differences and the reasons and mechanisms behind them are needed.

To assess past climate variability in west-central Scandinavia, a new 972-year-long temperature reconstruction, based on adjusted delta blue intensity (ΔBIadj), was created. Presently, it is the longest blue intensity chronology in Fennoscandia and the third longest in the northern hemisphere. Measurements were obtained from 119 tree line Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris L.) samples from Rogen, in the central Scandinavian Mountains, Sweden. Early and latewood blue intensity absorption data were used to create ΔBIadj. The data were detrended using a signal-free regional curve standardization method (RSFi) to minimize biological noise and maximize low-frequency climate information. The Rogen ΔBIadj chronology has a substantially stronger temperature signal at inter-annual timescales than the corresponding tree-ring width (RW) chronology, and it displays good spatial representation for the south-central parts of Scandinavia. The ΔBIadj summer (June through August) temperature reconstruction, extending back to 1038 CE, exhibits three warm periods in 1040–1190 CE, 1370–1570 CE and the 20th century and one extended cold period between 1570 and 1920 CE. Regional summer temperature anomalies are associated with a Scandinavian–Greenland dipole sea-level pressure pattern, which has been stable for the past several centuries. Major volcanic eruptions produce distinct anomalies of ΔBIadj indices indicating cooling of summer temperatures in the subsequent years. Our results show that ΔBIadj from Pinus sylvestris in Scandinavia is a suitable proxy providing opportunities to explore past temperature variability at various frequencies, atmospheric dynamics and variability in external forcing. Nevertheless, long-term trend differences with RW imply that further research is needed to fully understand the application of this technique in dendroclimatology.

A contribution to the 2k Network. ABSTRACT: Despite the spatially homogenous summer temperature pattern in Fennoscandia there are large spreads among the many existing reconstructions resulting in an uncertainty in the timing and amplitude of past changes. Also there has been a general bias towards northernmost Fennoscandia. In an attempt to provide a more spatially coherent view of summer (June–August JJA) temperature variability within the last millennium we utilized seven density and three blue intensity Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris L.) chronologies collected from the altitudinal (Scandinavian Mountains) and latitudinal (northernmost part) treeline. To attain a JJA temperature signal as strong as possible as well as preserving multicentury scale variability we used a new tree ring parameter where the earlywood information is removed from the maximum density and blue intensity and a modified signal free standardization method. Two skilful reconstructions for the period 1100–2006 CE were made one regional reconstruction based on an average of the chronologies and one field (gridded) reconstruction. The new reconstructions were shown to have much improved spatial representations compared to those based on data from only northern sites thus making it more valid for the whole region. An examination of some of the forcings of JJA mean temperatures in the region shows an association with sea surface temperature over the eastern North Atlantic but also the subpolar and subtropical gyres. Moreover using Superposed Epoch Analysis a significant cooling in the year following a volcanic eruption was noted and for the largest explosive eruptions the effect could remain for up to 4 years. This new improved reconstruction provides a mean to reinforce our understanding of forcings on summer temperatures in the North European sector.

We thank The Carnegie Trust for the Universities of Scotland for providing funding for Miloš Rydval’s PhD. The Scottish pine network expansion has been an ongoing task since 2007 and funding must be acknowledged to the following projects: EU project ‘Millennium’ (017008-2), Leverhulme Trust project ‘RELiC: Reconstructing 8000 years of Environmental and Landscape change in the Cairngorms (F/00 268/BG)’ and the NERC project ‘SCOT2K: Reconstructing 2000 years of Scottish climate from tree rings (NE/K003097/1)’. This study presents a summer temperature reconstruction using Scots pine tree-ring chronologies for Scotland allowing the placement of current regional temperature changes in a longer-term context. ‘Living-tree’ chronologies were extended using ’subfossil’ samples extracted from nearshore lake sediments resulting in a composite chronology > 800 years in length. The North Cairngorms (NCAIRN) reconstruction was developed from a set of composite blue intensity high-pass and ring-width low-pass chronologies with a range of detrending and disturbance correction procedures. Calibration against July-August mean temperature explains 56.4% of the instrumental data variance over 1866-2009 and is well verified. Spatial correlations reveal strong coherence with temperatures over the British Isles, parts of western Europe, southern Scandinavia and northern parts of the Iberian Peninsula. NCAIRN suggests that the recent summer-time warming in Scotland is likely not unique when compared to multi-decadal warm periods observed in the 1300s, 1500s, and 1730s, although trends before the mid-16th century should be interpreted with some caution due to greater uncertainty. Prominent cold periods were identified from the 16th century until the early 1800s – agreeing with the so-called Little Ice Age observed in other tree-ring reconstructions from Europe - with the 1690s identified as the coldest decade in the record. The reconstruction shows a significant cooling response one year following volcanic eruptions although this result is sensitive to the datasets used to identify such events. In fact, the extreme cold (and warm) years observed in NCAIRN appear more related to internal forcing of the summer North Atlantic Oscillation. Publisher PDF

Along with Arctic amplification, changes in Arctic hydroclimate have become increasingly apparent. Reanalysis data show increasing trends in Arctic temperature and precipitation over the 20th century, but changes are not homogenous across seasons or space. The observed hydroclimate changes are expected to continue, and possibly accelerate, in the coming century, not only affecting pan-Arctic natural ecosystems and human activities, but also lower latitudes through changes in atmospheric and oceanic circulation. However, a lack of spatiotemporal observational data makes reliable quantification of Arctic hydroclimate change difficult, especially in a long-term context. To understand hydroclimate variability and the mechanisms driving observed changes, beyond the instrumental record, climate proxies are needed. Here we bring together the current understanding of Arctic hydroclimate during the past 2000 years, as inferred from natural archives and proxies and palaeoclimate model simulations. Inadequate proxy data coverage is apparent, with distinct data gaps in most of Eurasia and parts of North America, which makes robust assessments for the whole Arctic currently impossible. Hydroclimate proxies and climate models indicate that the Medieval Climate Anomaly (MCA) was anomalously wet, while conditions were in general drier during the Little Ice Age (LIA), relative to the last 2000 years. However, it is clear that there are large regional differences, which are especially evident during the LIA. Due to the spatiotemporal differences in Arctic hydroclimate, we recommend detailed regional studies, e.g. including field reconstructions, to disentangle spatial patterns and potential forcing factors. At present, it is only possible to carry out regional syntheses for a few areas of the Arctic, e.g. Fennoscandia, Greenland and western North America. To fully assess pan-Arctic hydroclimate variability for the last two millennia additional proxy records are required.

Today few high-quality tree-ring based temperature reconstructions extending over the past millennium exist, and those have, in general, low replication in their early parts. Here we present a new and updated maximum latewood density (MXD) chronology extending over the last 1200 years, built from local Scots pine wood sources (living trees, drywood preserved the ground, and subfossil wood extracted from lakes) all collected within 20 km in the Scandinavian Mountains in Jamtland. The MXD data was used to reconstruct April-September mean temperatures, where 60% of the variance in observed temperatures could be explained. The reconstruction exhibited distinct multidecadal variability, with the coldest periods centred on ca. 900, 1450, 1600 and 1900 CE, and the warmest periods on ca. 1160, 1250, 1500, 1660 CE. The last part of the 20th – early part of 21st century was the warmest period throughout the whole record, and the reconstruction suggests that, on average, the Medieval Climate Anomaly (MCA, 950–1250 CE) was only slightly warmer than the Little Ice Age (LIA, 1450–1900 CE). In fact, compared to earlier reconstructions from the region, the new reconstruction suggested lower MCA warm-season temperatures. However, despite sufficient replication during that period, high inhomogeneity among the MXD series makes this period slightly uncertain. The unique drywood on which the chronology was built, displayed a distinct regeneration pattern, where changes in Scots pine establishment was interpreted as responses to changes in forest fire activity and climate throughout the past millennium.

Текст статьи не публикуется в открытом доступе в соответствии с политикой журнала. Large-scale millennial length Northern Hemisphere (NH) temperature reconstructions have been progressively improved over the last 20 years as new datasets have been developed. This paper, and its companion (Part II, Anchukaitis et al. in prep), details the latest tree-ring (TR) based NH land air temperature reconstruction from a temporal and spatial perspective. This work is the first product of a consortium called N-TREND (Northern Hemisphere Tree-Ring Network Development) which brings together dendroclimatologists to identify a collective strategy for improving large-scale summer temperature reconstructions. The new reconstruction, N-TREND2015, utilises 54 records, a significant expansion compared with previous TR studies, and yields an improved reconstruction with stronger statistical calibration metrics. N-TREND2015 is relatively insensitive to the compositing method and spatial weighting used and validation metrics indicate that the new record portrays reasonable coherence with large scale summer temperatures and is robust at all time-scales from 918 to 2004 where at least 3 TR records exist from each major continental mass. N-TREND2015 indicates a longer and warmer medieval period (~900 e1170) than portrayed by previous TR NH reconstructions and by the CMIP5 model ensemble, but with better overall agreement between records for the last 600 years. Future dendroclimatic projects should focus on developing new long records from data-sparse regions such as North America and eastern Eurasia as well as ensuring the measurement of parameters related to latewood density to complement ring-width records which can improve local based calibration substantially.

A Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris L.) tree-ring width chronology from Jamtland, in the central Scandinavian Mountains, built from living and sub-fossil wood, covering the period 1632 BC to AD 2002, with a minor gap during AD 887–907, is presented. This is the first multi-millennial tree-ring chronology from the central parts of Fennoscandia. Pine growth in this tree line environment is mainly limited by summer temperatures, and hence the record can be viewed as a temperature proxy. Using the regional curve standardization (RCS) technique, pine-growth variability on short and long time scales was retained and subsequently summer (June–August) temperatures were reconstructed yielding information on temperature variability during the last 3600 years. Several periods with anomalously warm or cold summers were found: 450–550 BC (warm), AD 300–400 (cold), AD 900–1000 (the Medieval Warm Period, warm) and AD 1550–1900 (Little Ice Age, cold). The coldest period was encountered in the fourth century AD and the warmest period 450 to 550 BC. However, the magnitude of these anomalies is uncertain since the replication of trees in the Jamtland record is low during those periods. The twentieth century warming does not stand out as an anomalous feature in the last 3600 years. Two multi-millennial tree-ring chronologies from Swedish and Finnish Lapland, which have previously been used as summer temperature proxies, agree well with the Jamtland record, indicating that the latter is a good proxy of local, but also regional, summer temperature variability.

Not only do high-latitude tree-ring data reveal minor and major Holocene climatic variation, but the distribution in time of subfossil trees provides information about former tree-line fluctuation....

In New Zealand human cryptosporidiosis demonstrates spring and autumn peaks of incidence with the spring peak being three times greater in magnitude than the autumn peak. The imbalance between the two peaks is notable, and may be associated with the high livestock density in New Zealand. In the summer and autumn the cryptosporidiosis rate was positively associated with temperatures in the current and previous month, highlighting the importance of outdoor recreation to transmission. No associations between spring incidence and weather were found providing little support for the importance of drinking-water pathways. Imported travel cases do not appear to be an important factor in the aetiology of cryptosporidiosis in New Zealand.

Stable Isotopes in Tree Rings as Proxies for Winter Precipitation Changes in the Russian Arctic over the Past 150 Years We present results from an analysis of tree ring width and stable carbon and oxygen isotopes in tree ring cellulose of Siberian Spruce collected from remote forest islands in the northwestern Russian tundra. Ring width is often considered a proxy for summer temperatures. The aim of this pilot study was to test whether stable isotopes can provide additional information about climate during the growth of trees in this extreme environment. Comparison of δ13C and δ18O with observed meteorological data shows that there is a link between stable isotopes and winter precipitation. This may be explained by the strong influence that snow exerts on the isotopic composition of soil moisture during spring and early summer, when the new cellulose is formed. Our results show that winter precipitation in the study area was increasing from 1865-1900, and thereafter decreasing until ~ 1930. The 1960-1980 period was again rather humid, followed by a drying trend until 1990. The study highlights the potential of stable carbon and oxygen isotopes in tree rings as proxies for winter precipitation.