Development of millennium-length density chronologies for eastern and southern Europe

Final Report Abstract

We sampled several hundred core and disc samples of living and relict larch and pine trees in the Tatra and Pindus Mountains in eastern and southern Europe. The samples were processed for TRW and MXD measurements, age trends were removed using stateof-the art detrending techniques, and chronologies produced to emphasize common variance and trends. Climate signals were assessed through calibration against regional instrumental data, and formal reconstructions produced using scaling and regression techniques. We produced a number of scientific publications including five papers on the work in the Pindus Mountains, one paper on the work in the Tatra, and three larger scale analyses in which the newly developed data were used to address research questions related to dating accuracy and historical recruitment dynamics. The new temperature reconstruction from the Pindus Mountains sets a benchmark for high-resolution paleoclimate records in the Mediterranean. Our reports on the oldest dendrochronologically tree in Europe, a 1075-year old Bosnian pine from northern Greece (“Adonis”), has been picked up by many news outlets (e.g. CNN).

Publications

• (2017) High-elevation inter-site differences in Mount Smolikas tree-ring width data. Dendrochronologia 44, 164-173
  Klippel L, Krusic PJ, Brandes R, Hartl-Meier C, Trouet V, Meko M, Esper J
  
• (2017) Meet Adonis, Europe's oldest dendrochronologically dated tree. Dendrochronologia 42, 12
  Konter O, Krusic PJ, Trouet V, Esper J
  
• (2018) A 1200+ year reconstruction of temperature extremes for the northeastern Mediterranean region. International Journal of Climatology
  Klippel L, Krusic PJ, Konter O, St. George S, Trouet V, Esper J
  
• (2018) A 1286-year hydro-climate reconstruction for the Balkan Peninsula. Boreas
  Klippel L, Krusic PJ, Brandes R, Hartl C, Belmecheri S, Dienst M, Esper J
  
• (2018) Tree rings reveal globally coherent signature of cosmogenic radiocarbon events in 774 and 993 CE. Nature Communications
  Büntgen U et al.
  
• (2020) Climate sensitivity of high- and low-elevation Larix decidua MXD chronologies from the Tatra Mountains. Dendrochronologia 60, 125674
  Klippel L, Büntgen U, Kyncl T, Esper J
  
• (2020) Eastern Mediterranean summer temperatures since 730 CE from Mt. Smolikas tree-ring densities. Climate Dynamics, 54, 1367-1382
  Esper J, Klippel L, Krusic PJ, Konter O, Raible C, Xoplaki E, Luterbacher J, Büntgen U
  
• (2020) Ranking of tree-ring based hydroclimate reconstructions of the past millennium. Quaternary Science Reviews
  Ljungqvist FC, Piermattei A, Seim A, Krusic PJ, Büntgen U, He M, Kirdyanov A, Luterbacher J, Schneider L, Seftigen K, Stahle D, Villalba R, Yang B, Esper J