ADVANCE-10K: a European contribution towards a hemispheric dendroclimatology for the Holocene

Abstract

This editorial introduces a special issue of The Holocene containing 12 papers which represent highlights from a European Commission research project: ‘Analysis of Dendrochronological Variability and Associated Natural Climates in Eurasia – the last 10000 years’ (ADVANCE-10K). The focus is on the climatic implications of dendrochronology and especially on developing an integrated, dendrochronological approach to high-resolution climatic reconstruction in the Holocene, with the ultimate aim of extending this to the global scale. Emphasis is given to: (1) long chronologies from northern Fennoscandia (pine), temperate central and western Europe (oak) and Siberia (larch); (2) the precise climatic signals reflected in these chronologies and possible links to atmospheric circulation patterns; (3) complementary methodologies for extracting climatic information from subfossil trees in a variety of different environmental settings; and (4) the use of a large (subhemispheric) network of tree-ring density data to examine detailed, geographical patterns in climatic varia bility at a high temporal resolution. These studies are placed in their wider context and future directions for research in this field are also highlighted.

Keywords

Dendrochronology dendroclimatology subfossil trees climatic variability pine oak larch Pinus Quercus Larix Holocene Europe Siberia Northern Hemisphere

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