1. Tree-rings and people - different views on the 1540 Megadrought. Reply to Büntgen et al. 2015
- Author
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Sonia I. Seneviratne, Rudolf Brázdil, Jürgen Herget, Oldřich Kotyza, Antonio Contino, Werner Siegfried, Jean-Laurent Spring, Ursula Bieber, Dag Retsö, Johan Söderberg, Sebastian Wagner, Mariano Barriendos, Laurent Litzenburger, Oliver Wetter, Karl H. Burmeister, Eduardo Zorita, Christian Rohr, Dirk Riemann, Rüdiger Glaser, Kathleen Pribyl, Danuta Limanówka, Johannes P. Werner, Thomas Labbé, Christian Pfister, Iso Himmelsbach, Uwe Grünewald, Maria João Alcoforado, Andrea Kiss, Jürg Luterbacher, Øyvind Nordli, Petr Dobrovolný, Chantal Camenisch, Centre de Recherche Universitaire Lorrain d'Histoire (CRULH), and Université de Lorraine (UL)
- Subjects
Atmospheric Science ,Global and Planetary Change ,300 Social sciences, sociology & anthropology ,Anomaly (natural sciences) ,15. Life on land ,6. Clean water ,Term (time) ,13. Climate action ,Evapotranspiration ,Climatology ,570 Life sciences ,biology ,Precipitation ,Spatial extent ,Precipitation index ,[SHS.HIST]Humanities and Social Sciences/History ,Megadrought ,550 Earth sciences & geology ,ComputingMilieux_MISCELLANEOUS - Abstract
Buntgen et al. (2015; hereinafter B15) present the result of new research which question the results of Wetter et al. 2014, (hereinafter W14) and Wetter et al. (2013, hereinafter W13)regarding European climate in 1540. B15 conclude from tree-ring evidence that the results based on documentary data of W14 probably overstated the intensity and duration of the 1540 drought event. W14 termed it Megadrought because of its extreme duration and spatial extent compared to other drought events in central Europe, although they note that the term is generally used for decadal rather than for single-year droughts (Seneviratne et al. 2012). We take the opportunity to recall the following issues. Firstly, when dealing with drought the complexity of this phenomenon should be kept in mind. Meteorological drought defined as a large negative precipitation anomaly during a certain period can trigger agricultural, hydrological, groundwater and socioeconomic droughts. Lloyd-Hughes (2013] and references cited herein) concluded that any workable objective definition of drought does not exist. To quantify droughts, various indices based on precipitation, temperature and evapotranspiration are used such as the Standardized Precipitation Index (SPI), Standardized Precipitation Evapotranspiration Index (SPEI), Z-index and PDSI. Their calculation depends on different periods (seasons, combination of months) and so different indices may classify the same drought episode differently (e.g. Brazdil et al.2014).
- Published
- 2021