Climatic signal in tree-ring width chronologies of European Russia: spatial change

and perspectives for paleoclimatic reconstructions

Vladimir Matskovsky

Institute of Geography, Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow, Russiamatskovsky@igras.ru

PAGES 2nd Young Scientists MeetingThe Past: A Compass for Future Earth

11-12 February 2013, Goa, India

Institute of Geography RAS Moscow, Russia

Tree-Ring Laboratory

Motivation

2/24Vladimir Matskovsky Climatic signal in tree-ring width chronologies of European Russia

• Tree rings are a unique source of paleoclimatic information because of precise dating of each proxy value

• European part of Russia is still poorly studied in terms of dendroclimatology, comparing to neighboring regions: Fennoscandia and Urals Mountains

• Long tree-ring width chronologies have mostly been used for dendrochronological dating and haven’t been analyzed for its paleoclimatic potential

• Global map of high-resolution reconstructions is lacking data from this region

Motivation

3/24Vladimir Matskovsky Climatic signal in tree-ring width chronologies of European Russia

“…chronological errors will accumulate back in time as missing rings are encountered.”

Constructing long chronologies for European Russia

4/24Vladimir Matskovsky Climatic signal in tree-ring width chronologies of European Russia

70°N 60°E

50°N 20°E

Identifying climatic signal: objectives

5/24Vladimir Matskovsky Climatic signal in tree-ring width chronologies of European Russia

The main objective:To extract climatic signal from tree-ring width chronologies of conifers in European Russia

Tasks:• To test correlations with different climatic parameters that can possibly

influence tree growth

• To compare long chronologies with climatic reconstructions

• To identify weather conditions in “pointer years” for the instrumental period

• To compare “pointer years” of long chronologies with historical data about extreme climatic events

Identifying climatic signal: materials and methods

6/24Vladimir Matskovsky Climatic signal in tree-ring width chronologies of European Russia

Pine (Pinus sylvestris ) Spruce (Picea abies, obovata) Larch (Larix sibirica)

Chronologies of living trees

Identifying climatic signal: materials and methods

7/24Vladimir Matskovsky Climatic signal in tree-ring width chronologies of European Russia

Climate data

• Daily and monthly precipitation and temperature values from more then 200 meteostations

• Gridded meteodata, 0,5° latitude and longitude (CRU TS 3.0)• Model data: Soil moisture, Palmer Drought Severity Index (PDSI),

Reanalysis.• Atmospheric circulation indexes: NAO, SCAND, etc.

Identifying climatic signal: materials and methods

8/24Vladimir Matskovsky Climatic signal in tree-ring width chronologies of European Russia

Methods

• Correlation analysis• Pointer years analysis• Comparison with historical data• Comparison with climate reconstructions

Identifying climatic signal: results

9/24Vladimir Matskovsky Climatic signal in tree-ring width chronologies of European Russia

Climatic response of tree ring chronologies

Pine Minimum air temperatures

(May-August)

Identifying climatic signal: results

10/24Vladimir Matskovsky Climatic signal in tree-ring width chronologies of European Russia

Climatic response of tree ring chronologies

Pine Soil moisture

(May)

Identifying climatic signal: results

11/24Vladimir Matskovsky Climatic signal in tree-ring width chronologies of European Russia

Climatic response of tree ring chronologies

Pine Palmer Drought Severity Index (PDSI)

(July)

Identifying climatic signal: results

12/24Vladimir Matskovsky Climatic signal in tree-ring width chronologies of European Russia

Climatic response of tree ring chronologies

Pine Wet day frequency

(June-July)

Identifying climatic signal: results

13/24Vladimir Matskovsky Climatic signal in tree-ring width chronologies of European Russia

Climatic response of tree ring chronologies

Spruce Mean air temperatures

(June-July)

Identifying climatic signal: results

14/24Vladimir Matskovsky Climatic signal in tree-ring width chronologies of European Russia

Climatic response of tree ring chronologies

Spruce Precipitation

(July)

Identifying climatic signal: results

15/24Vladimir Matskovsky Climatic signal in tree-ring width chronologies of European Russia

Climatic response of tree ring chronologies

Larch Minimum air temperatures

(June)

Identifying climatic signal: results

16/24Vladimir Matskovsky Climatic signal in tree-ring width chronologies of European Russia

Climatic response of tree ring chronologies

Larch Relative air humidity

(August)

Identifying climatic signal: results

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Weather conditions forming pointer years

X-IXX-IIIIV-IX

V-VIIIVI-VII

X-IXX-IIIIV-IX

V-VIIIVI-VII

Paleoclimatic information in long chronologies

18/24Vladimir Matskovsky Climatic signal in tree-ring width chronologies of European Russia

z-sc

ores

Years

Chronology «Vologda» Mann and Jones, 2003, R = 0.59D’Arrigo et al., 2006, R=0.35

Paleoclimatic information in long chronologies

19/24Vladimir Matskovsky Climatic signal in tree-ring width chronologies of European Russia

z-sc

ores

Years

«Solovki» chronology Kononov et al., 2009, R = 0.61

-3

-2

-1

0

1

2

3

1000 1100 1200 1300 1400 1500 1600 1700 1800 1900 2000

Но

рм

ир

ова

нн

ые

знач

ени

я

Годы

«Solovki» chronology Solar activity (Delaygue and Bard, 2010), R = 0.63

Paleoclimatic information in long chronologies

20/24Vladimir Matskovsky Climatic signal in tree-ring width chronologies of European Russia

z-sc

ores

Years

Paleoclimatic information in long chronologies

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Positive «pointer years» Negative «pointer years» All the «pointer years»

Century

Freq

uenc

y

Summary

22/24Vladimir Matskovsky Climatic signal in tree-ring width chronologies of European Russia

Why? (objectives)To understand what climate information can be extracted from long tree-ring width chronologies in European RussiaHow? (materials and methods)We used analysis of spatial correlations, pointer years analysis and comparison with historical data and climate reconstructionsWhat? (results) We showed that climatic response is changing along latitudinal gradient, trees are more temperature sensitive in the north and moisture sensitive in the south – these results allow interpretation of long chronologies; Pointer years analysis showed weather conditions that lead to anomalous tree growth;Ppointer years coincide with historical data, chronologies show correlation with climate reconstructions – it demonstrates good paleoclimatic potential of tree-ring width chronologies in this regionPerspectivesNew long chronologiesOther proxies: stable isotopes, maximum latewood densityBuilding regional reconstructions and including them into large projects (like PAGES 2k Network)

Acknowledgements

23/24Vladimir Matskovsky Climatic signal in tree-ring width chronologies of European Russia

Colleagues from our Tree-ring laboratoryfor their contribution in this research

PAGESfor the possibility to give a talk on the 2nd YSM

PAGES and Asia-Pacific Network for Global Change Research for financial support that made my participation in this meeting possible

Thanks for your attention!