Skip to main content

Advertisement

SpringerLink
Log in

Fading temperature sensitivity of Alpine tree growth at its Mediterranean margin and associated effects on large-scale climate reconstructions

  • Published:
Climatic Change Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

A millennium-long tree-ring width chronology of living and dead larch (Larix decidua Mill.) specimens from the Maritime French Alps was introduced 35 years ago. This record has been included in various large-scale temperature reconstructions, though recent analyses revealed only weak associations with regional summer temperatures. Calibration and verification trials against instrumental measurements were, however, limited by the original record’s early ending in 1974. Here we introduce an update of this widely considered chronology until 2007 and back into medieval times. A total of 297 new larch samples from high-elevation settings in the southern French Alps were included, and the combined 398 measurement series allowed effects of tree-ring detrending and chronology development to be explored. Comparisons with meteorological temperature, precipitation and drought indices revealed weak and temporally inconsistent climate sensitivity. To further place these local findings in a biogeographic context, we used >3,000 larch trees from 61 locations across the Alpine arc. This unique network approach confirmed fading temperature sensitivity with decreasing latitude, and thus questioned the overall reliability of ring width-based temperature reconstructions in the Mediterranean region. Our results further emphasize the pending need to develop chronologies from maximum latewood densities and stable isotope ratios across the lower latitudes, and to carefully evaluate ecological site conditions and methodological data restrictions prior to compiling local data into global networks.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3
Fig. 4
Fig. 5
Fig. 6
Fig. 7
Fig. 8
Fig. 9

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Auer I, 31 co-authors (2007) HISTALP—Historical instrumental climatological surface time series of the greater Alpine region 1760–2003. Int J Climatol 27:17–46

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Böhm R, Auer I, Brunetti M, Maugeri M, Nanni T, Schöner W (2001) Regional temperature variability in the European Alps: 1760–1998 from homogenized instrumental time series. Int J Climatol 21:1779–1801

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Briffa KR (2000) Annual climate variability in the Holocene—interpreting the message from ancient tree. Quat Sci Rev 19:87–105

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Briffa KR, Jones PD, Bartholin TS, Eckstein D, Schweingruber FH, Karlén W, Zetterberg P, Eronen M (1992) Fennoscandian summers from AD 500: temperature changes on short and long timescales. Clim Dyn 7:111–119

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Brohan P, Kennedy JJ, Harris I, Tett SFB, Jones PD (2006) Uncertainty estimates in regional and global observed temperature changes: a new dataset from 1850. J Geophys Res 111. doi:10.1029/2005JD006548

  • Büntgen U, Tegel W (2011) European tree-ring data and the Medieval Climate Anomaly. PAGES 19:14–15

    Google Scholar 

  • Büntgen U, Esper J, Frank DC, Nicolussi K, Schmidhalter M (2005) A 1052-year tree-ring proxy for Alpine summer temperatures. Clim Dyn 25:141–153

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Büntgen U, Frank DC, Nievergelt D, Esper J (2006a) Summer temperature variations in the European Alps, AD 755–2004. J Clim 19:5606–5623

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Büntgen U, Frank DC, Schmidhalter M, Neuwirth B, Seifert M, Esper J (2006b) Growth-climate response shift in a long subalpine spruce chronology. Trees 20:99–110

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Büntgen U, Frank DC, Grudd H, Esper J (2008a) Long-term summer temperature variations in the Pyrenees. Clim Dyn 31:615–631

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Büntgen U, Frank D, Wilson R, Carrer M, Urbinati C, Esper J (2008b) Testing for tree-ring divergence in the European Alps. Glob Change Biol 14:2443–2453

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Büntgen U, Frank DC, Carrer M, Urbinati C, Esper J (2009a) Improving Alpine summer temperature reconstructions by increasing sample size. In: Malik I et al (eds) Tree rings in archaeology, climatology and ecology. TRACE 7:36–43

  • Büntgen U, Frank DC, Liebhold A, Johnson D, Carrer M, Urbinati C, Grabner M, Nicolussi K, Levanic T, Esper J (2009b) Three centuries of insect outbreaks across the European Alps. New Phyto 182:929–941

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Büntgen U, Franke J, Frank D, Wilson R, Gonzales-Rouco F, Esper J (2010a) Assessing the spatial signature of European climate reconstructions. Clim Res 41:125–130

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Büntgen U, Frank D, Trouet V, Esper J (2010b) Diverse climate sensitivity of Mediterranean tree-ring width and density. Trees 24:261–273

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Büntgen U, Raible C, Frank D, Helama S, Cunningham L, Hofer D, Nievergelt D, Verstege A, Stenseth N, Esper J (2011a) Causes and consequences of past and projected Scandinavian summer temperatures, 500–2100 AD. PLoS One 6(9):e25133. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0025133

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Büntgen U, Tegel W, Nicolussi K, McCormick M, Frank D, Trouet V, Kaplan J, Herzig F, Heussner U, Wanner H, Luterbacher J, Esper J (2011b) 2500 years of European climate variability and human susceptibility. Science 331:578–582

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Carrer M, Urbinati M (2006) Long-term change in the sensitivity of tree-ring growth to climate forcing in Larix decidua. New Phytol 170:861–872

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Cook ER, Peters K (1981) The smoothing spline: a new approach to standardizing forest interior tree-ring width series for dendroclimatic studies. Tree-Ring Bull 41:45–53

    Google Scholar 

  • Cook ER, Peters K (1997) Calculating unbiased tree-ring indices for the study of climatic and environmental change. Holocene 7:361–370

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • D’Arrigo R, Wilson R, Jacoby GC (2006) On the long-term context for late 20th century warming. J Geophys Res 111. doi:10.1029/2005JD006352

  • D’Arrigo R, Jacoby G, Buckley BM, Sakulich J, Frank D, Wilson R, Curtis A, Anchukaitis KJ (2009) Tree growth and inferred temperature variability at the North American Arctic treeline. Glob Plan Change 65:71–82

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Esper J, Frank DC (2009a) The IPCC on a heterogeneous Medieval Warm Period. Clim Change 94:267–273

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Esper J, Frank DC (2009b) Divergence pitfalls in tree-ring research. Clim Change 94:261–266

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Esper J, Cook ER, Schweingruber FH (2002) Low-frequency signals in long tree-ring chronologies for reconstructing past temperature variability. Science 295:2250–2252

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Esper J, Cook ER, Krusic PJ, Peters K, Schweingruber FH (2003) Tests of the RCS method for preserving low-frequency variability in long tree-ring chronologies. Tree-Ring Res 59:81–98

    Google Scholar 

  • Esper J, Frank DC, Wilson RJS (2004) Low frequency ambition, high frequency ratification. Eos 85:113–120

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Esper J, Wilson RJS, Frank DC, Moberg A, Wanner H, Luterbacher J (2005) Climate: past ranges and future changes. Quat Sci Rev 24:2164–2166

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Esper J, Büntgen U, Frank DC, Nievergelt D, Liebhold A (2007a) 1200 years of regular outbreaks in alpine insects. Proc R Soc B 274:671–679

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Esper J, Frank D, Büntgen U, Verstege A, Luterbacher J, Xoplaki E (2007b) Long-term drought severity variations in Morocco. Geophy Res Lett 34:L17702. doi:10.1029/2007GL030844

  • Esper J, Niederer R, Bebi P, Frank DC (2008) Climate signal age effects—evidence from young and old trees in the Swiss Engadin. For Ecol Manag 255:3783–3789

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Frank D, Esper J (2005a) Characterization and climate response patterns of a high-elevation, multi-species tree-ring network for the European Alps. Dendrochronologia 22:107–121

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Frank D, Esper J (2005b) Temperature reconstructions and comparisons with instrumental data from a tree-ring network for the European Alps. Int J Climatol 25:1437–1454

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Frank D, Büntgen U, Böhm R, Maugeri M, Esper J (2007a) Warmer early instrumental measurements versus colder reconstructed temperatures: shooting at a moving target. Quat Sci Rev 26:3298–3310

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Frank D, Esper J, Cook E (2007b) Adjustment for proxy number and coherence in a large-scale temperature reconstruction. Geophys Res Lett 34. doi:10.1029/2007GL030571

  • Frank D, Bouriaud O, Wilson R, Battipaglia G, Büntgen U, Fonti P, Treydte K, Trouet V, Esper J (2008) A challenge for spatially explicit reconstructions: the climate response of trees is a function of climate. In: Elferts D et al (eds) Tree rings in archaeology, climatology and ecology. TRACE 6:31–36

  • Frank D, Büntgen U, Esper J (2009) Response to Late 20th century growth acceleration in greek firs (Abies cephalonica) from Cephalonica Island, Greece: A CO2 fertilization effect? Dendrochronologia 27:223–227

  • Gao XJ, Giorgi F (2008) Increased aridity in the Mediterranean region under greenhouse gas forcing estimated from high-resolution simulations with a regional climate model. Glob Planet Change 62:195–209

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gershunov A, Schneider N, Barnett T (2001) Low frequency modulation of the ENSO-Indian monsoon rainfall relationship: signal or noise. J Clim 14:2486–2492

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Giorgi F (2006) Climate change hot-spots. Geophys Res Lett 33. doi:10.1029/2006GL025734

  • Grudd H (2008) Torneträsk tree-ring width and density AD 500–2004: a test of climatic sensitivity and a new 1500-year reconstruction of northern Fennoscandian summers. Clim Dyn 31:843–857

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Guiot J, Nicault A, Rathgeber C, Edouard JL, Guibal F, Pichard G, Till C (2005) Last-millennium summer-temperature variations in western Europe based on proxy data. Holocene 15:489–500

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Jones PD, Briffa KR, Barnett TP, Tett SFB (1998) High-resolution palaeoclimatic records for the past millennium: interpretation, integration and comparison with general circulation model control-run temperatures. Holocene 8:455–471

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kress A, Saurer M, Büntgen U, Treydte K, Bugmann H, Siegwolf R (2009) Summer temperature dependency of larch budmoth outbreaks revealed by Alpine tree-ring isotope chronologies. Oecologia 160:353–365

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Linderholm HW, Björklund J, Seftigen K, Gunnarson BE, Drobyshev I, Jeong J-H, Stridbeck P, Liu Y (2009) Dendroclimatology in Fennoscandia from past accomplishments to future potentials. Clim Past Discus 5:1415–1461

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Luterbacher J, 48 co-authors (2006) Mediterranean climate variability over the last centuries: a review. In: Lionello P, Malanotte-Rizzoli P, Boscolo R (eds) The Mediterranean Climate: an overview of the main characteristics and issues. Elsevier, Amsterdam, pp 27–148

    Google Scholar 

  • Mann ME, Bradley RS, Hughes MK (1999) Northern Hemisphere temperatures during the past millennium—inferences, uncertainties, and limitations. Geophys Res Lett 26:759–762

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mitchell TD, Jones PD (2005) An improved method of constructing a database of monthly climate observations and associated high-resolution grids. Int J Climatol 25:693–712

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Moser L, Fonti P, Büntgen U, Franzen J, Esper J, Luterbacher J, Frank D (2010) Timing and duration of European larch growing season along altitudinal gradients in the Swiss Alps. Tree Physiol 30:225–233

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Schweingruber FH, Bartholin T, Schär E, Briffa KR (1988) Radiodensitometric-dendroclimatological conifer chronologies from Lapland (Scandinavia) and the Alps (Switzerland). Boreas 17:559–566

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Serre F (1978) The dendroclimatologicalvalue of the European larch (Larix decidua Mill.) in the French Maritime Alps. Tree-Ring Bul 38:25–34

    Google Scholar 

  • Serre-Bachet F (1994) Middle ages temperature reconstructions in Europe, a focus on northeastern Italy. Clim Change 26:213–224

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Tegel W, Vanmoerkerke J, Büntgen U (2010) Updating historical tree-ring records for climate reconstruction. Quat Sci Rev 29:1957–1959

    Google Scholar 

  • Wigley TML, Briffa KR, Jones PD (1984) On the average of correlated time series, with applications in dendroclimatology and hydrometeorology. J Clim Appl Meteorol 23:201–213

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgments

R. Böhm made the HISTALP data available (Austrian FWF, P16076-N06), and spatial field correlations were generated using the KNMI Climate Explorer (http://climexp.knmi.nl). Supported by the EC project MILLENNIUM (#017008-GOCE), and the SNF through the National Centre for Competence in Climate Research (NCCR-Climate).

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Swiss Federal Research Institute WSL, Zuercherstrasse 111, 8903, Birmensdorf, Switzerland

    Ulf Büntgen & David Frank

  2. Oeschger Centre for Climate Change Research, Erlachstrasse 9a, 3012, Bern, Switzerland

    Ulf Büntgen & David Frank

  3. University of Bern, Hallerstrasse 12, 3012, Bern, Switzerland

    Thomas Neuenschwander

  4. Department of Geography, Johannes Gutenberg University, Becherweg 21, 55099, Mainz, Germany

    Jan Esper

Authors
  1. Ulf Büntgen
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. David Frank
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Thomas Neuenschwander
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Jan Esper
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Ulf Büntgen.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Büntgen, U., Frank, D., Neuenschwander, T. et al. Fading temperature sensitivity of Alpine tree growth at its Mediterranean margin and associated effects on large-scale climate reconstructions. Climatic Change 114, 651–666 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10584-012-0450-4

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10584-012-0450-4

Keywords

Search

Navigation