Climatic signal in tree-ring width chronologies of conifers in European Russia

ABSTRACT

Although European part of Russia is the largest forest-covered part of Europe, dendroclimatic data for high-resolution climate reconstructions are still scarce in this region. Climatic response of 62 tree-ring width chronologies of pine (Pinus sylvestris), spruce (Picea abies, Picea obovata) and larch (Larix sibirica) was analysed over a large area in the northern and central parts of European Russia (54–70°N, 29–57°E). The use of several climatic archives including the data from meteorological stations and gridded datasets allowed identifying the most important climatic parameters impacting the radial growth of conifers in the study region. Our results showed that all conifers growing to the north of 60°N react positively to summer temperature. To the south, at the latitude of 54–56°N, the signal is changing and the ring width depends on the combination of two parameters – warmth and humidity (precipitation, Palmer Drought Severity Index, soil moisture). These findings are in correspondence with analogous studies from nearby regions (Europe and Fennoscandia) and large-scale studies for the whole Northern Hemisphere. Although three genera of conifers were studied, pine is much better represented in the analysed network, and the results for spruce and larch have to be confirmed in further studies. The negative correlation of the spruce-ring width with the temperature of previous growing season has been defined for 16 of 17 studied chronologies.