Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-8ctnn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-27T07:46:54.612Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Bristlecone pine tree rings and volcanic eruptions over the last 5000 yr

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Matthew W. Salzer  and
Malcolm K. Hughes
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Many years of low growth identified in a western USA regional chronology of upper forest border bristlecone pine (Pinus longaeva and Pinus aristata) over the last 5000 yr coincide with known large explosive volcanic eruptions and/or ice core signals of past eruptions. Over the last millennium the agreement between the tree-ring data and volcano/ice-core data is high: years of ring-width minima can be matched with known volcanic eruptions or ice-core volcanic signals in 86% of cases. In previous millennia, while there is substantial concurrence, the agreement decreases with increasing antiquity. Many of the bristlecone pine ring-width minima occurred at the same time as ring-width minima in high latitude trees from northwestern Siberia and/or northern Finland over the past 4000–5000 yr, suggesting climatically-effective events of at least hemispheric scale. In contrast with the ice-core records, the agreement between widely separated tree-ring records does not decrease with increasing antiquity. These data suggest specific intervals when the climate system was or was not particularly sensitive enough to volcanic forcing to affect the trees, and they augment the ice core record in a number of ways: by providing confirmation from an alternative proxy record for volcanic signals, by suggesting alternative dates for eruptions, and by adding to the list of years when volcanic events of global significance were likely, including the mid-2nd-millennium BC eruption of Thera.

Keywords

DendrochronologyVolcanic eruptionsPaleoclimateBristlecone pineTree-rings
Type
Research Article
Information
Quaternary Research , Volume 67 , Issue 1 , January 2007 , pp. 57 - 68
Copyright
University of Washington

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Ammann, C.M., and Naveau, P. Statistical analysis of tropical explosive volcanism occurrences over the last 6 centuries. Geophysical Research Letters 30, (2003). 1210 doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.1029/2002GL016388CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Baillie, M.G.L. Dendrochronology raises questions about the nature of the AD 536 dust-veil event. The Holocene 4, (1994). 212–217.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Baillie, M.G.L., and Munro, M.A.R. Irish tree rings, Santorini and volcanic dust veils. Nature 332, (1988). 344–346.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Barber, V.A., Juday, G.P., and Finney, B.P. Reduced growth of Alaskan white spruce in the twentieth century from temperature induced drought stress. Nature 405, (2000). 668–673.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Bradley, R.S. The explosive volcanic eruption signal in Northern Hemisphere continental temperature records. Climatic Change 12, (1988). 221–243.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Briffa, K.R., Schweingruber, F.H., Jones, P.D., Osborn, T.J., Shiyatov, S.G., and Vaganov, E.A. Reduced sensitivity of recent tree-growth to temperature at high northern latitudes. Nature 391, (1998). 678–682.Google Scholar
Briffa, K.R., Jones, P.D., Schweingruber, F.H., and Osborn, T.J. Influence of volcanic eruptions on Northern Hemisphere summer temperature over the past 600 years. Nature 393, (1998). 450–455.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bronk-Ramsey, C., Manning, S.W., and Galimberti, M. Dating the volcanic eruption at Thera. Radiocarbon 46, (2004). 325–344.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Budner, D., and Cole-Dai, J. The number and magnitude of explosive volcanic eruptions between 904 and 1865 A.D.: Quantitative evidence from a new South Pole ice core, in Volcanism and the Earth's Atmosphere. Robock, A., and Oppenheimer, C. (2003). American Geophysical Union, 165–176. doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.1029/139GM10Google Scholar
Clausen, H.B., Hammer, C.U., Hvidberg, C.S., Dahl-Jensen, D., Steffensen, J.P., Kipfstuhl, J., and Legrand, M. A comparison of volcanic records over the past 4000 years from the Greenland Ice Core Project and Dye 3 Greenland ice cores. Journal of Geophysical Research 102, (1997). 26707–26723.Google Scholar
Cole-Dai, J., Mosley-Thompson, E., and Thompson, L.G. Annually resolved southern hemisphere volcanic history from two Antarctic ice cores. Journal of Geophysical Research 102, (1997). 16761–16771.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cook, E.R., (1985). A Time Series Approach to Tree-Ring Standardization. Ph.D. Dissertion, Laboratory or Tree-Ring Research, University of Arizona, Tucson.Google Scholar
Cook, E.R., Briffa, K.R., Shiyatov, S., and Mazepa, V. Tree-ring standardization and growth-trend estimation. Cook, E.R., and Kairiukstis, L.A. Methods of Dendrochronology: Applications in the Environmental Sciences, International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis. (1990). Kluwer Academic Publishers, Boston. 104–123.Google Scholar
Cook, E.R., Briffa, K.R., Meko, D.M., Graybill, D.A., and Funkhouser, G. The segment length curse in long tree-ring chronology development for palaeoclimatic studies. The Holocene 5, (1995). 229–235.Google Scholar
Cook, E.R., Meko, D.M., Stahle, D.W., and Cleaveland, M.K. Drought reconstructions for the continental United States. Journal of Climate 12, (1999). 1145–1162.2.0.CO;2>CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Crowley, T.J. Causes of climate change over the past 1000 years. Science 289, (2000). 270–277.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Crowley, T.J., Criste, T.A., and Smith, N.R. Reassessment of Crete (Greenland) ice core acidity/volcanism link to climate change. Geophysical Research Letters 20, (1993). 209–212.Google Scholar
D'Arrigo, R., Jacoby, G., Frank, D., Pederson, N., Cook, E., Buckley, B., Nachin, B., Mijiddorj, R., and Dugarav, C. 1738 years of Mongolian temperature variability inferred from a tree-ring width chronology of Siberian Pine. Geophysical Research Letters 28, 3 (2001). 543–546.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Free, M., and Robock, A. Global warming in the context of the Little Ice Age. Geophysical Research Letters 104, (1999). 19057–19070.Google Scholar
Fritts, H.C. Tree Rings and Climate. (1976). Academic Press, New York.Google Scholar
Fritts, H.C. Reconstructing Large-Scale Climatic Patterns from Tree-Ring Data. (1991). University of Arizona Press, Tucson.Google Scholar
Graybill, D.A., and Idso, S.B. Detecting the aerial fertilization effect of atmospheric CO2 enrichment in tree-ring chronologies. Global Biogeochemical Cycles 7, (1993). 81–95.Google Scholar
Hammer, C.U., Clausen, H.B., and Dansgaard, W. Greenland ice sheet evidence of post-glacial volcanism and its climatic impact. Nature 288, (1980). 230–235.Google Scholar
Hammer, C.U., Kurat, G., Hoppe, P., Grum, W., and Clausen, H.B. Thera eruption date 1645 BC confirmed by new ice core data?. Bietak, M. The synchronisation of civilisations in the eastern Mediterranean in the second millennium BC II. Proceedings of the SCIEM2000 Euroconference, Haindorf, 2–7 May 2001, Vienna (2003). 87–94.Google Scholar
Hantemirov, R.M., and Shiyatov, S.G. A continuous multimillennial ring-width chronology in Yamal, northwestern Siberia. Holocene 12, 6 (2002). 717–726.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Helama, S., Lindholm, M., Timonen, M., Meriläinen, J., and Eronen, M. The supra-long Scots pine tree-ring record for Finnish Lapland: Part 2, interannual to centennial variability in summer temperatures for 7500 years. Holocene 12, (2002). 681–687.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Holmes, R.L. Computer-assisted quality control in tree-ring dating and measuring. Tree-Ring Bulletin 43, (1983). 69–78.Google Scholar
Hughes, M.K., and Funkhouser, G. Frequency-dependent climate signal in upper and lower forest border trees in the mountains of the Great Basin. Climatic Change 59, (2003). 233–244.Google Scholar
Hughes, M.K., Vaganov, E.A., Shiyatov, S., Touchan, R., and Funkhouser, G. Twentieth-century summer warmth in northern Yakutia in a 600 year context. The Holocene 9, (1999). 603–608.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jones, P.D., Briffa, K.R., and Schweingruber, F.H. Tree-ring evidence of the widespread effects of explosive volcanic eruptions. Geophysical Research Letters 22, (1995). 1333–1336.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Keenan, D.J. Volcanic ash retrieved from the GRIP ice core is not from Thera. Geochemistry, Geophysics, Geosystems 4, 11 (2003). 1 (CiteID 1097, doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.1029/2003GC000608)CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kelly, P.M., Jones, P.D., and Pengqun, J. The spatial response of the climate system to explosive volcanic eruptions. International Journal of Climatology 16, (1996). 537–550.3.0.CO;2-F>CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lacis, A., and Sato, M. Climate forcing by stratospheric aerosols. Geophysical Research Letters 19, (1992). 1607–1610.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
LaMarche, V.C. Jr. Paleoclimatic inferences from long tree-ring records. Science 183, (1974). 1043–1048.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
LaMarche, V.C., and Hirschboeck, K.K. Frost rings in trees as records of major volcanic eruptions. Nature 307, (1984). 121–126.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
LaMarche, V.C. Jr, and Stockton, C.W. Chronologies from temperature-sensitive bristlecone pines at upper treeline in western United States. Tree-Ring Bulletin 34, (1974). 21–45.Google Scholar
LaMarche, V.C. Jr., Graybill, D.A., Fritts, H.C., and Rose, M.R. Increasing atmospheric carbon dioxide: tree-ring evidence for growth enhancement in natural vegetation. Science 225, (1984). 1019–1021.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Langway, C.C., Osada, K., Clausen, H.B., Hammer, C.U., and Shoji, H. A 10-century comparison of prominent bipolar volcanic events in ice cores. Journal of Geophysical Research 100, (1995). 16241–16247.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lough, J.M., and Fritts, H.C. An assessment of the possible effects of volcanic eruptions on North American climate using tree-ring data, 1602 to 1900 A.D.. Climatic Change 10, (1987). 219–239.Google Scholar
Mann, M.E., Bradley, R.S., and Hughes, M.K. Global-scale temperature patterns and climate forcing over the past six centuries. Nature 392, (1998). 779–787.Google Scholar
Manning, S.W., Bronk-Ramsey, C., Doumas, C., Marketou, T., Cadogan, G., and Pearson, C.L. New evidence for an early date for the Aegean Late Bronze Age and Thera eruption. Antiquity 76, (2002). 733–744.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McMormick, M.P., Thomason, L.W., and Trepte, C.R. Atmospheric effects of the Mount Pinatubo eruption. Nature 373, (1995). 399–404.Google Scholar
Minnis, P., Harrison, E.F., Stowe, L.L., Gibson, G.G., Denn, F.M., Doelling, D.R., Smith, W.L. Jr. Radiative climate forcing by the Mount Pinatubo eruption. Science 259, (1993). 1411–1415.Google Scholar
Mooney, C.Z., Duval, R.D., (1993). Bootstrapping: a nonparametric approach to statistical inference. Sage University Paper series on quantitative applications in the social sciences, no. 7–95, 73 pp. Sage Publications, Newbury Park, California.Google Scholar
Osborn, T.J., Briffa, K.R., and Jones, P.D. Adjusting variance for sample size in tree-ring chronologies and other regional mean timeseries. Dendrochronologia 15, (1997). 89–99.Google Scholar
Pearce, N.J.G., Westgate, J.A., Preece, S.J., Eastwood, W.J., and Perkins, W.T. Identification of Aniakchak (Alaska) tephra in Greenland ice core challenges the 1645 BC date for Minoan eruption of Santorini. Geochemistry, Geophysics, Geosystems 5, 3 (2004). QO3005 (doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.1029/2003GC000672)CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Porter, S.C. Pattern and forcing of Northern Hemisphere glacier variations during the last millennium. Quaternary Research 26, (1986). 27–48.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rampino, M.R., and Self, S. Historic eruptions of Tambora (1815), Krakatau (1883), and Agung (1963), their stratospheric aerosols, and climatic impact. Quaternary Research 18, (1982). 127–143.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Robock, A. Internally and externally caused climate change. Journal of Atmospheric Science 35, (1978). 1111–1122.2.0.CO;2>CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Robock, A., and Mao, J. Winter warming from large volcanic eruptions. Geophysical Research Letters 19, (1992). 2405–2408.Google Scholar
Robock, A., and Free, M.P. The volcanic record in ice cores for the past 2000 years, Climatic Variations and Forcing Mechanisms of the Last 200 Years. Jones, P.D., Bradley, R.S., and Jouzel, J. (1996). Springer-Verlag New York, 533–546.Google Scholar
Rutherford, S., Mann, M.E., Osborn, T.J., Bradley, R.S., Briffa, K.R., Hughes, M.K., and Jones, P.D. Proxy-based Northern hemisphere surface temperature reconstructions: sensitivity to methodology, predictor network, target season and target domain. Journal of Climate 18, (2005). 2308–2329.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Salzer, M.W. Temperature variability and the Northern Anasazi: possible implications for regional abandonment. Kiva 64, 4 (2000). 295–318.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Salzer, M.W., and Kipfmueller, K.F. Reconstructed temperature and precipitation on a millennial timescale from tree-rings in the southern Colorado Plateau, USA. Climatic Change 70, (2005). 465–487.Google Scholar
Scuderi, L.A. Tree-ring evidence for climatically effective volcanic eruptions. Quaternary Research 34, (1990). 67–85.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Scuderi, L.A. Climatically effective volcanism. Quaternary Research 37, (1992). 130–135.Google Scholar
Shindell, D., Schmidt, G.A., Mann, M.E., Rind, D., and Waple, A. Solar forcing of regional climate change during the Maunder Minimum. Science 294, (2001). 2149–2152.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Shindell, D., Schmidt, G.A., Miller, R.L., and Mann, M.E. Volcanic and solar forcing of climate change during the Preindustrial Era. Journal of Climate 16, (2003). 4094–4107.2.0.CO;2>CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Simkin, T., and Siebert, L. Volcanoes of the World: A Regional Directory, Gazetteer, and Chronology of Volcanism During the last 10,000 Years. 2nd ed. (1994). Geoscience Press, Tucson, AZ. 349 pp.Google Scholar
Stothers, R.B. Mystery cloud of AD 536. Nature 307, (1984). 344–345.Google Scholar
Stothers, R.B., and Rampino, M.R. Volcanic eruptions in the Mediterranean before A.D. 630 from written and archaeological sources. Journal of Geophysical Research 88, (1983). 6357–6371.Google Scholar
Vaganov, E.A., Hughes, M.K., Kirdyanov, A.V., Schweingruber, F.H., and Silkin, P.P. Influence of snowfall and melt timing on tree growth in subarctic Eurasia. Nature 400, (1999). 149–151.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wiener, M.H., in press. Times change: the current state of the debate in old world chronology. Proceedings of the 2nd EuroConference of “SCIEM 2000”, 28 May–1 June 2003, Vienna.Google Scholar
Wilmking, M.R., D'Arrigo, R., Jacoby, G.C., and Juday, G.P. Increased temperature sensitivity and divergent growth trends in circumpolar boreal forests. Geophysical Research Letters 32, (2005). L15715 doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.1029/2005GL02331Google Scholar
Zielinski, G.A. Stratospheric loading and optical depth estimates of explosive volcanism over the last 2100 years derived from the Greenland Ice Sheet Project 2 ice core. Journal of Geophysical Research 100, (1995). 20937–20955.Google Scholar
Zielinski, G.A., Mayewski, P.A., Meeker, L.D., Whitlow, S., Twickler, M.S., Morrison, M., Meese, D.A., Gow, A.J., and Alley, R.B. Record of volcanism since 7000 B.C. from the GISP2 Greenland ice core and implications for the volcano–climate system. Science 264, (1994). 948–952.Google Scholar
Zielinski, G.A., Mayewski, P.A., Meeker, L.D., Grönvold, K., Germani, M.S., Whitlow, S., Twickler, M.S., and Taylor, K. Volcanic aerosol records and tephrochronology of the Summit, Greenland, ice cores. Journal of Geophysical Research 102, C12 (1997). 26625–26640. doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.1029/2002GL016388CrossRefGoogle Scholar