Tree-Ring Amplification of the Early Nineteenth-Century Summer Cooling in Central Europe

Ulf Büntgen Swiss Federal Research Institute WSL, Birmensdorf, Switzerland
Oeschger Centre for Climate Change Research, Bern, Switzerland
Global Change Research Centre AS CR v.v.i., Brno, Czech Republic

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Miroslav Trnka Global Change Research Centre AS CR v.v.i., Brno, Czech Republic
Institute of Agriculture Systems and Bioclimatology, Mendel University in Brno, Brno, Czech Republic

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Paul J. Krusic Department of Physical Geography, Stockholm University, Stockholm, Sweden
Navarino Environmental Observatory, Messinia, Greece

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Tomáš Kyncl Global Change Research Centre AS CR v.v.i., Brno, Czech Republic
Moravian Dendro-Labor, Brno, Czech Republic

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Josef Kyncl Moravian Dendro-Labor, Brno, Czech Republic

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Jürg Luterbacher Department of Geography, Justus Liebig University, Giessen, Germany

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Eduardo Zorita Institute for Coastal Research, Helmholtz Zentrum, Geesthacht, Germany

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Fredrik Charpentier Ljungqvist Bolin Centre for Climate Research, Stockholm University, Stockholm, Sweden
Department of History, Stockholm University, Stockholm, Sweden

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Ingeborg Auer Central Institute for Meteorology and Geodynamics (ZAMG), Vienna, Austria

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Oliver Konter Moravian Dendro-Labor, Brno, Czech Republic

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Lea Schneider Moravian Dendro-Labor, Brno, Czech Republic

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Willy Tegel Institute for Forest Growth (IWW), University of Freiburg, Freiburg, Germany

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Petr Štěpánek Global Change Research Centre AS CR v.v.i., Brno, Czech Republic

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Stefan Brönnimann Oeschger Centre for Climate Change Research, Bern, Switzerland

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Lena Hellmann Swiss Federal Research Institute WSL, Birmensdorf, Switzerland
Oeschger Centre for Climate Change Research, Bern, Switzerland

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Daniel Nievergelt Swiss Federal Research Institute WSL, Birmensdorf, Switzerland

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Jan Esper Moravian Dendro-Labor, Brno, Czech Republic

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Abstract

Annually resolved and absolutely dated tree-ring chronologies are the most important proxy archives to reconstruct climate variability over centuries to millennia. However, the suitability of tree-ring chronologies to reflect the “true” spectral properties of past changes in temperature and hydroclimate has recently been debated. At issue is the accurate quantification of temperature differences between early nineteenth-century cooling and recent warming. In this regard, central Europe (CEU) offers the unique opportunity to compare evidence from instrumental measurements, paleomodel simulations, and proxy reconstructions covering both the exceptionally hot summer of 2003 and the year without summer in 1816. This study uses 565 Swiss stone pine (Pinus cembra) ring width samples from high-elevation sites in the Slovakian Tatra Mountains and Austrian Alps to reconstruct CEU summer temperatures over the past three centuries. This new temperature history is compared to different sets of instrumental measurements and state-of-the-art climate model simulations. All records independently reveal the coolest conditions in the 1810s and warmest after 1996, but the ring width–based reconstruction overestimates the intensity and duration of the early nineteenth-century summer cooling by approximately 1.5°C at decadal scales. This proxy-specific deviation is most likely triggered by inflated biological memory in response to reduced warm season temperature, together with changes in radiation and precipitation following the Tambora eruption in April 1815. While suggesting there exists a specific limitation in ring width chronologies to capture abrupt climate perturbations with increased climate system inertia, the results underline the importance of alternative dendrochronological and wood anatomical parameters, including stable isotopes and maximum density, to assess the frequency and severity of climatic extremes.

Supplemental information related to this paper is available at the Journals Online website: http://dx.doi.org/10.1175/JCLI-D-14-00673.s1.

Publisher’s Note: This article was revised on 1 December 2015 to correct an error in the funding information that appeared in the Acknowledgments section.

Corresponding author address: Ulf Büntgen, Swiss Federal Research Institute WSL, Zürcherstrasse 111, CH-8903, Birmensdorf, Switzerland. E-mail: buentgen@wsl.ch

Abstract

Annually resolved and absolutely dated tree-ring chronologies are the most important proxy archives to reconstruct climate variability over centuries to millennia. However, the suitability of tree-ring chronologies to reflect the “true” spectral properties of past changes in temperature and hydroclimate has recently been debated. At issue is the accurate quantification of temperature differences between early nineteenth-century cooling and recent warming. In this regard, central Europe (CEU) offers the unique opportunity to compare evidence from instrumental measurements, paleomodel simulations, and proxy reconstructions covering both the exceptionally hot summer of 2003 and the year without summer in 1816. This study uses 565 Swiss stone pine (Pinus cembra) ring width samples from high-elevation sites in the Slovakian Tatra Mountains and Austrian Alps to reconstruct CEU summer temperatures over the past three centuries. This new temperature history is compared to different sets of instrumental measurements and state-of-the-art climate model simulations. All records independently reveal the coolest conditions in the 1810s and warmest after 1996, but the ring width–based reconstruction overestimates the intensity and duration of the early nineteenth-century summer cooling by approximately 1.5°C at decadal scales. This proxy-specific deviation is most likely triggered by inflated biological memory in response to reduced warm season temperature, together with changes in radiation and precipitation following the Tambora eruption in April 1815. While suggesting there exists a specific limitation in ring width chronologies to capture abrupt climate perturbations with increased climate system inertia, the results underline the importance of alternative dendrochronological and wood anatomical parameters, including stable isotopes and maximum density, to assess the frequency and severity of climatic extremes.

Supplemental information related to this paper is available at the Journals Online website: http://dx.doi.org/10.1175/JCLI-D-14-00673.s1.

Publisher’s Note: This article was revised on 1 December 2015 to correct an error in the funding information that appeared in the Acknowledgments section.

Corresponding author address: Ulf Büntgen, Swiss Federal Research Institute WSL, Zürcherstrasse 111, CH-8903, Birmensdorf, Switzerland. E-mail: buentgen@wsl.ch

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