Global wood anatomical perspective on the onset of the Late Antique Little Ice Age (LALIA) in the mid-6th century CE

Autoren

Ulf Büntgen
Alan Crivellaro
Dominique Arseneault
Mike Baillie
David Barclay
Mauro Bernabei
Jarno Bontadi
Gretel Boswijk
David Brown
Duncan A Christie
Olga V Churakova
Edward R Cook
Rosanne D’Arrigo
Nicole Davi
Jan Esper
Patrick Fonti
Ciara Greaves
Rashit M Hantemirov
Malcolm K Hughes
Alexander V Kirdyanov
Paul J Krusic
Carlos Le Quesne
Fredrik C Ljungqvist
Michael McCormick
Vladimir S Myglan
Kurt Nicolussi
Clive Oppenheimer
Jonathan Palmer
Chun Qin
Frederick Reinig
Matthew Salzer
Markus Stoffel
Max Torbenson
Mirek Trnka
Ricardo Villalba
Nick Wiesenberg
Greg Wiles
Bao Yang
Alma Piermattei

DOI

10.1016/j.scib.2022.10.019

ISSN

2095-9273

Ausgabe der Veröffentlichung

22

Zeitschrift

Science Bulletin

Sprache

en

Paginierung

2336 - 2344

Datum der Veröffentlichung

2022

Status

Published

Herausgeber

Elsevier BV

Herausgeber URL

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.scib.2022.10.019

Datum der Datenerfassung

2022

Titel

Global wood anatomical perspective on the onset of the Late Antique Little Ice Age (LALIA) in the mid-6th century CE

Ausgabe der Zeitschrift

67

Data source: Crossref

Abstract

Linked to major volcanic eruptions around 536 and 540 CE, the onset of the Late Antique Little Ice Age has been described as the coldest period of the past two millennia. The exact timing and spatial extent of this exceptional cold phase are, however, still under debate because of the limited resolution and geographical distribution of the available proxy archives. Here, we use 106 wood anatomical thin sections from 23 forest sites and 20 tree species in both hemispheres to search for cell-level fingerprints of ephemeral summer cooling between 530 and 550 CE. After cross-dating and double-staining, we identified 89 Blue Rings (lack of cell wall lignification), nine Frost Rings (cell deformation and collapse), and 93 Light Rings (reduced cell wall thickening) in the Northern Hemisphere. Our network reveals evidence for the strongest temperature depression between mid-July and early-August 536 CE across North America and Eurasia, whereas more localised cold spells occurred in the summers of 532, 540-43, and 548 CE. The lack of anatomical signatures in the austral trees suggests limited incursion of stratospheric volcanic aerosol into the Southern Hemisphere extra-tropics, that any forcing was mitigated by atmosphere-ocean dynamical responses and/or concentrated outside the growing season, or a combination of factors. Our findings demonstrate the advantage of wood anatomical investigations over traditional dendrochronological measurements, provide a benchmark for Earth system models, support cross-disciplinary studies into the entanglements of climate and history, and question the relevance of global climate averages.

Addresses

Department of Geography, University of Cambridge, Cambridge CB2 3EN, UK; Swiss Federal Research Institute (WSL), Birmensdorf 8903, Switzerland; Global Change Research Centre (CzechGlobe), Brno 60300, Czech Republic; Department of Geography, Faculty of Science, Masaryk University, Brno 61300, Czech Republic. Electronic address: ulf.buentgen@geog.cam.ac.uk.

Autoren

Ulf Büntgen
Alan Crivellaro
Dominique Arseneault
Mike Baillie
David Barclay
Mauro Bernabei
Jarno Bontadi
Gretel Boswijk
David Brown
Duncan A Christie
Olga V Churakova
Edward R Cook
Rosanne D'Arrigo
Nicole Davi
Jan Esper
Patrick Fonti
Ciara Greaves
Rashit M Hantemirov
Malcolm K Hughes
Alexander V Kirdyanov
Paul J Krusic
Carlos Le Quesne
Fredrik C Ljungqvist
Michael McCormick
Vladimir S Myglan
Kurt Nicolussi
Clive Oppenheimer
Jonathan Palmer
Chun Qin
Frederick Reinig
Matthew Salzer
Markus Stoffel
Max Torbenson
Mirek Trnka
Ricardo Villalba
Nick Wiesenberg
Greg Wiles
Bao Yang
Alma Piermattei

DOI

10.1016/j.scib.2022.10.019

eISSN

2095-9281

Externe Identifier

PubMed Identifier: 36546223

Open access

false

ISSN

2095-9273

Ausgabe der Veröffentlichung

22

Zeitschrift

Science bulletin

Schlüsselwörter

Trees
Temperature
Climate
Seasons
Wood
Forests

Sprache

eng

Medium

Print-Electronic

Online publication date

2022

Paginierung

2336 - 2344

Datum der Veröffentlichung

2022

Status

Published

Publisher licence

CC BY

Datum der Datenerfassung

2022

Titel

Global wood anatomical perspective on the onset of the Late Antique Little Ice Age (LALIA) in the mid-6th century CE.

Sub types

Journal Article

Ausgabe der Zeitschrift

67

Data source: Europe PubMed Central

Abstract

Linked to major volcanic eruptions around 536 and 540 CE, the onset of the Late Antique Little Ice Age has been described as the coldest period of the past two millennia. The exact timing and spatial extent of this exceptional cold phase are, however, still under debate because of the limited resolution and geographical distribution of the available proxy archives. Here, we use 106 wood anatomical thin sections from 23 forest sites and 20 tree species in both hemispheres to search for cell-level fingerprints of ephemeral summer cooling between 530 and 550 CE. After cross-dating and double-staining, we identified 89 Blue Rings (lack of cell wall lignification), nine Frost Rings (cell deformation and collapse), and 93 Light Rings (reduced cell wall thickening) in the Northern Hemisphere. Our network reveals evidence for the strongest temperature depression between mid-July and early-August 536 CE across North America and Eurasia, whereas more localised cold spells occurred in the summers of 532, 540-43, and 548 CE. The lack of anatomical signatures in the austral trees suggests limited incursion of stratospheric volcanic aerosol into the Southern Hemisphere extra-tropics, that any forcing was mitigated by atmosphere-ocean dynamical responses and/or concentrated outside the growing season, or a combination of factors. Our findings demonstrate the advantage of wood anatomical investigations over traditional dendrochronological measurements, provide a benchmark for Earth system models, support cross-disciplinary studies into the entanglements of climate and history, and question the relevance of global climate averages.

Date of acceptance

2022

Autoren

Ulf Büntgen
Alan Crivellaro
Dominique Arseneault
Mike Baillie
David Barclay
Mauro Bernabei
Jarno Bontadi
Gretel Boswijk
David Brown
Duncan A Christie
Olga V Churakova
Edward R Cook
Rosanne D'Arrigo
Nicole Davi
Jan Esper
Patrick Fonti
Ciara Greaves
Rashit M Hantemirov
Malcolm K Hughes
Alexander V Kirdyanov
Paul J Krusic
Carlos Le Quesne
Fredrik C Ljungqvist
Michael McCormick
Vladimir S Myglan
Kurt Nicolussi
Clive Oppenheimer
Jonathan Palmer
Chun Qin
Frederick Reinig
Matthew Salzer
Markus Stoffel
Max Torbenson
Mirek Trnka
Ricardo Villalba
Nick Wiesenberg
Greg Wiles
Bao Yang
Alma Piermattei

Autoren-URL

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36546223

DOI

10.1016/j.scib.2022.10.019

eISSN

2095-9281

Ausgabe der Veröffentlichung

22

Zeitschrift

Sci Bull (Beijing)

Schlüsselwörter

Blue Rings
Climate extremes
Dendrochronology
Late Antiquity
Tree rings
Volcanic eruptions
Wood
Climate
Seasons
Temperature
Forests
Trees

Sprache

eng

Country

Netherlands

Paginierung

2336 - 2344

PII

S2095-9273(22)00479-0

Datum der Veröffentlichung

2022

Status

Published

Datum, an dem der Datensatz öffentlich gemacht wurde

2022

Titel

Global wood anatomical perspective on the onset of the Late Antique Little Ice Age (LALIA) in the mid-6th century CE.

Sub types

Journal Article

Ausgabe der Zeitschrift

67

Data source: PubMed

Global wood anatomical perspective on the onset of the Late Antique Little Ice Age (LALIA) in the mid-6th century CE

Tools