High resolution climate reconstruction for the last millennium using tree rings

• Applicant: Dr. Gerhard Helle
• Subject Area: Palaeontology
• Term: from 2010 to 2015
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 155487509

The proposed project is dedicated to a unique multiparameter approach to investigate modern and palaeomonsoon using tree-rings. Tree rings provide precisely dated archives, from which palaeoclimate information will be extracted at inter- and intra-annual resolution by analyzing ring-width, wood density and stable isotopes of carbon and oxygen. Together with Indian scientists we are aiming at millennium long, annually resolved reconstructions of rainfall and temperature across an E-W Himalayan transect and gradients from dry to wet conditions. In addition sites from lowland central and peninsular India will be studied for developing a N-S transect along the Indian subcontinent. By applying novel intra-annual stable isotope investigations we are attempting to reconstruct changing seasonality and seasonal hazards, i.e. changes in the onset of monsoon rainfall and changes in frequency and intensity of extreme events.

• DFG Programme: Research Units
• Subproject of: FOR 1380: Himalaya: Modern and Past Climates (HIMPAC)
• International Connection: India
• Participating Persons: Dr. Hemant P. Borgaonker; Dr. Supriya Chakraborty; Professor Dr. Gerhard Hans Schleser