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Journal Article

European tree-ring isotopes indicate unusual recent hydroclimate

Authors
/persons/resource/freund

Freund,  Mandy
4.3 Climate Dynamics and Landscape Evolution, 4.0 Geosystems, Departments, GFZ Publication Database, Deutsches GeoForschungsZentrum;

/persons/resource/ghelle

Helle,  G.
4.3 Climate Dynamics and Landscape Evolution, 4.0 Geosystems, Departments, GFZ Publication Database, Deutsches GeoForschungsZentrum;

/persons/resource/balting

Balting,  Daniel
4.3 Climate Dynamics and Landscape Evolution, 4.0 Geosystems, Departments, GFZ Publication Database, Deutsches GeoForschungsZentrum;

Ballis,  Natasha
External Organizations;

Schleser,  Gerhard H.
External Organizations;

Cubasch,  Ulrich
External Organizations;

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Fulltext (public)

5015343.pdf
(Publisher version), 5MB

Supplementary Material (public)
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Citation

Freund, M., Helle, G., Balting, D., Ballis, N., Schleser, G. H., Cubasch, U. (2023): European tree-ring isotopes indicate unusual recent hydroclimate. - Communications Earth & Environment, 4, 26.
https://doi.org/10.1038/s43247-022-00648-7


Cite as: https://gfzpublic.gfz-potsdam.de/pubman/item/item_5015343
Abstract
In recent decades, Europe has experienced more frequent flood and drought events. However, little is known about the long-term, spatiotemporal hydroclimatic changes across Europe. Here we present a climate field reconstruction spanning the entire European continent based on tree-ring stable isotopes. A pronounced seasonal consistency in climate response across Europe leads to a unique, well-verified spatial field reconstruction of European summer hydroclimate back to AD 1600. We find three distinct phases of European hydroclimate variability as possible fingerprints of solar activity (coinciding with the Maunder Minimum and the end of the Little Ice Age) and pronounced decadal variability superimposed by a long-term drying trend from the mid-20th century. We show that the recent European summer drought (2015–2018) is highly unusual in a multi-century context and unprecedented for large parts of central and western Europe. The reconstruction provides further evidence of European summer droughts potentially being influenced by anthropogenic warming and draws attention to regional differences.