Swiss tree rings reveal warm and wet summers during medieval times

0521375 - ÚVGZ 2020 RIV US eng J - Journal Article
Kress, A. - Hangartner, S. - Bugmann, H. - Büntgen, Ulf - Frank, D. C. - Leuenberger, M. - Siegwolf, R. T. W. - Saurer, M.
Swiss tree rings reveal warm and wet summers during medieval times.
Geophysical Research Letters. Roč. 41, č. 5 (2014), s. 1732-1737. ISSN 0094-8276. E-ISSN 1944-8007
Institutional support: RVO:67179843
Keywords : european alps * climate * reconstruction * temperature * series * precipitation * variability * drought * tree-rings * carbon isotopes * drought * Medieval Climate Anomaly
OECD category: Meteorology and atmospheric sciences
Impact factor: 4.196, year: 2014
Method of publishing: Open access
https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/2013GL059081

We present a 1200 year drought reconstruction for the European Alpine region based on carbon isotope variations of tree rings from living larch trees and historic timber. The carbon isotope fractionation at the study site is sensitive to summer precipitation, temperature, and irradiance, resulting in a stable and high correlation with a drought index for interannual to decadal frequencies and possibly beyond (r(2)=0.58 for 1901-2004, July/August). When combining this information with maximum latewood density-derived summer temperature, a strongly reduced occurrence of summer droughts during the warm A.D. 900-1200 period is evident, coinciding with the Medieval Climate Anomaly (MCA), with a shift to colder and drier conditions for the subsequent centuries. The warm-wet MCA contrasts strongly with the climate of the drought-prone warm phase of the recent decades, indicating different forcing mechanism for these two warm periods and pointing to beneficial conditions for agriculture and human well-being during the MCA in this region.
Permanent Link: http://hdl.handle.net/11104/0306002