Signal strength and climate calibration of a European tree-ring isotope network(1)

  1. Introduction
[2] 21st century global warming and its potential impact on the hydrological cycle [Allen and Ingram, 2002;Trenberth and Shea, 2005; Treydte et al., 2006] strengthen the need to quantify climate changes particularly in regions with large human populations. Europe represents a region where significant progress has been made in assessing past climate variations due to the availability of long instrumental records, documentary archives, and natural proxies.
Temperature and precipitation fields have been reconstructed over the whole European region based primarily on long instrumental records and documentary data [Luterbacher et
al., 2004; Pauling et al., 2006; Xoplaki et al., 2005]. Many long-term high-resolution proxy reconstructions are, however, restricted to temperature variations at high latitudes or
altitudes [Esper et al., 2002; Bu¨ntgen et al., 2006; Frank and Esper, 2005] or to local/regional precipitation or drought variability [e.g., Casty et al., 2005; Masson-
Delmotte et al., 2005; Wilson et al., 2005]. This is because the climatic signal in the most prominent proxies - tree ring width and maximum latewood density - is strongest at
ecological boundary conditions. Hence, additional proxy records are required, which enable the expansion of climate reconstructions into temperate regions. Local analyses of
tree ring stable isotopes have demonstrated potential in providing environmental information from such sites [e.g., Masson-Delmotte et al., 2005; Rafalli-Delerce et al., 2004;
Saurer et al., 1997] and therefore could help to overcome some limitations in dendroclimatology [Esper et al., 2005].
[3] Here we present 20th century carbon and oxygen isotope data (d13C and d18O) from a network of 23 sites....Leggi tutto

 

 

(1) K. Treydte,1 D. Frank,1 J. Esper,1 L. Andreu,2 Z. Bednarz,3 F. Berninger,4 T. Boettger,5
C. M. D’Alessandro,6 N. Etien,7 M. Filot,8 M. Grabner,9 M. T. Guillemin,7 E. Gutierrez,2
M. Haupt,5 G. Helle,19 E. Hilasvuori,10 H. Jungner,10 M. Kalela-Brundin,11 M. Krapiec,12
M. Leuenberger,8 N. J. Loader,13 V. Masson-Delmotte,7 A. Pazdur,14 S. Pawelczyk,14
M. Pierre,7 O. Planells,2 R. Pukiene,15 C. E. Reynolds-Henne,16 K. T. Rinne,17
A. Saracino,18 M. Saurer,16 E. Sonninen,10 M. Stievenard,7 V. R. Switsur,17
M. Szczepanek,14 E. Szychowska-Krapiec,12 L. Todaro,6 J. S. Waterhouse,17 M. Weigl,9
and G. H. Schleser19