European hydroclimate variability of the past 400 years based on tree-ring isotopes
- 1CSIRO Oceans and Atmosphere, Melbourne, VIC, Australia (mandy.freund@csiro.au)
- 2Department of Earth Science, Institute for Meteorology, Freie Universität Berlin, 12165 Berlin, Germany
- 3German Research Centre for Geosciences, Climate Dynamics and Landscape Evolution, Potsdam 14473, Germany
- 4Alfred-Wegener-Institute, Bremerhaven 27570, Germany
- 5Environmental Hydrology and Water Resources, Department of Infrastructure Engineering, University of Melbourne, Parkville, VIC 3010, Australia
- 6Institute of Bio- and Geosciences IBG-3, Forschungszentrum Jülich, Jülich 52428, Germany
In recent decades, Europe has experienced more frequent flood and drought events. However, little is known about the long-term, spatiotemporal hydroloclimatic changes across Europe. We show the first 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 1600. We find 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), pronounced decadal variability and a long-term drying trend from the mid 20th century. The recent European summer conditions are highly unusual in a multi-century context and unprecedented for large parts of central and western Europe.
How to cite: Freund, M., Helle, G., Balting, D., Ballis, N., Schleser, G., and Cubasch, U.: European hydroclimate variability of the past 400 years based on tree-ring isotopes, EGU General Assembly 2023, Vienna, Austria, 24–28 Apr 2023, EGU23-14680, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu23-14680, 2023.
