Large-scale, millennial-length temperature reconstructions from tree-rings

Esper, Jan; George, Scott St.; Anchukaitis, Kevin; D'Arrigo, Rosanne; Ljungqvist, Fredrik Charpentier; Luterbacher, Jürg; Schneider, Lea; Stoffel, Markus; Wilson, Rob; Büntgen, Ulf

doi:10.1016/j.dendro.2018.06.001

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Title		Large-scale, millennial-length temperature reconstructions from tree-rings
Authors		Esper, Jan George, Scott St. Anchukaitis, Kevin D'Arrigo, Rosanne Ljungqvist, Fredrik Charpentier Luterbacher, Jürg Schneider, Lea Stoffel, Markus Wilson, Rob Büntgen, Ulf show all authors [1 - 10]
Published in		Dendrochronologia. 2018, vol. 50, p. 81-90
Abstract		Over the past two decades, the dendroclimate community has produced various annually resolved, warm seasontemperature reconstructions for the extratropical Northern Hemisphere. Here we compare these tree-ring basedreconstructions back to 831 CE and present a set of basic metrics to provide guidance for non-specialists on theirinterpretation and use. We specifically draw attention to(i)the imbalance between (numerous) short and (few)long site chronologies incorporated into the hemispheric means,(ii)the beneficial effects of including maximumlatewood density chronologies in the recently published reconstructions,(iii)a decrease in reconstructioncovariance prior to 1400 CE, and(iv)the varying amplitudes and trends of reconstructed temperatures over thepast 1100 years. Whereas the reconstructions agree on several important features, such as warmth duringmedieval times and cooler temperatures in the 17th and 19th centuries, they still exhibit substantial differencesduring 13th and 14th centuries. We caution users who might consider combining the reconstructions throughsimple averaging that all reconstructions share some of the same underlying tree-ring data, and provide fourrecommendations to guide future efforts to better understand past millennium temperature variability.
Keywords		Tree-ring width — Maximum latewood density — Warm season temperatures — Medieval Warm Period — Little Ice Age — Northern Hemisphere
Identifiers		DOI: 10.1016/j.dendro.2018.06.001
Full text		Article (Published version) (854 Kb) - Limited access to UNIGE Other version: https://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S1125786518300687
Structures		Faculté des sciences / Section des sciences de la Terre et de l'Environnement / Département F.-A. Forel des sciences de l'environnement et de l'eau Centres et instituts / Institut des sciences de l'environnement Faculté des sciences / Section des sciences de la Terre et de l'Environnement / Département des sciences de la Terre
Citation (ISO format)		ESPER, Jan et al. Large-scale, millennial-length temperature reconstructions from tree-rings. In: Dendrochronologia, 2018, vol. 50, p. 81-90. doi: 10.1016/j.dendro.2018.06.001 https://archive-ouverte.unige.ch/unige:122240