Recent atmospheric drying in Siberia is not unprecedented over the last 1,500 years

Сидорова, О. В.; Corona, Christophe; Fonti, Marina V.; Guillet, Sèbastien; Saurer, Matthias; Siegwolf, Rolf; Stoffel, Markus; Vaganov, Еugene А.

doi:10.1038/s41598-020-71656-w

Cited by 16 publications

(26 citation statements)

References 57 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…indicates that the modern, increasing level of drought stress is not yet unprecedented, being surpassed by a high vapour pressure deficit during the MCA (Churakova Sidorova et al, 2020). This is similar to trends observed in the fire reconstruction at Lake Khamra.…”

Section: Climatesupporting

confidence: 78%

“…Although it has been demonstrated that the timing and extent of these climatic phases are heterogeneous (Guiot et al, 2010), evidence for their occurrence in Siberia is seen in other proxy studies (Churakova Sidorova et al, 2020;Kharuk et al, 2010;Osborn and Briffa, 2006), albeit less pronounced when it comes to vegetation response in the West Siberian Lowland (Philben et al, 2014). Neukom et al (2019) show how these climatic periods arising from averaged reconstructions at many individual study sites are not spatially or temporally coherent on the global scale, and conclude that environmental reconstructions "should not be forced to fit into global narratives or epochs".…”

Section: Climatementioning

confidence: 97%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Wildfire history of the boreal forest of southwestern Yakutia (Siberia) over the last two millennia documented by a lake-sedimentary charcoal record

Glückler¹,

Herzschuh²,

Kruse³

et al. 2020

Preprint

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Abstract. Wildfires, as a key disturbance in forest ecosystems, are shaping the world’s boreal landscapes. Changes in fire regimes are closely linked to a wide array of environmental factors, such as vegetation composition, climate change, and human activity. Arctic and boreal regions and, in particular, Siberian boreal forests are experiencing rising air and ground temperatures with the subsequent degradation of permafrost soils, leading to shifts in tree cover and species composition. Compared to the boreal zones of North America or Europe, little is known about how such environmental changes might influence long-term fire regimes in Russia. The larch-dominated eastern Siberian deciduous boreal forests differ markedly from the composition of other boreal forests, yet data about past fire regimes remain sparse. Here, we present a high-resolution macroscopic charcoal record from lacustrine sediments of Lake Khamra (SW Yakutia, Siberia) spanning the last c. 2200 years, including information about charcoal particle sizes and morphotypes. Our results reveal a phase of increased charcoal accumulation between 600–900 CE, indicative of relatively high amounts of burnt biomass and high fire frequencies. This is followed by an almost 900-year-long period of low charcoal accumulation without significant peaks, likely corresponding to cooler climate conditions. After 1750 CE fire frequencies and the relative amount of biomass burnt start to increase again, coinciding with a warming climate and increased anthropogenic land development after Russian colonisation. In the 20th century, total charcoal accumulation decreases again to very low levels, despite higher fire frequency, potentially reflecting a change in fire management strategies and/or a shift of the fire regime towards more frequent, but smaller fires. A similar pattern for different charcoal morphotypes and comparison to a pollen and non-pollen palynomorph record from the same sediment core indicate that broad-scale changes in vegetation composition were probably not a major driver of recorded fire regime changes. Instead, the fire regime of the last two millennia at Lake Khamra seems to be controlled mainly by a combination of short-term climate variability and anthropogenic fire ignition and suppression.

show abstract

Section: Climatesupporting

confidence: 78%

Section: Climatementioning

confidence: 97%

Wildfire history of the boreal forest of southwestern Yakutia (Siberia) over the last two millennia documented by a lake-sedimentary charcoal record

Glückler¹,

Herzschuh²,

Kruse³

et al. 2020

Preprint

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Macroscopic charcoal particles in sediment archives, derived from biomass burning, are commonly used as a proxy for fire activity (e.g. Clark, 1988;Conedera et al, 2009;Remy et al, 2018;Whitlock and Larsen, 2001). Charcoal records are an important tool for tracking past changes in fire regimes and searching for underlying causes and effects, from local to global scales (Marlon et al, 2008(Marlon et al, , 2013Power et al, 2008).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Wildfire history of the boreal forest of south-western Yakutia (Siberia) over the last two millennia documented by a lake-sediment charcoal record

et al. 2021

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Abstract. Wildfires, as a key disturbance in forest ecosystems, are shaping the world's boreal landscapes. Changes in fire regimes are closely linked to a wide array of environmental factors, such as vegetation composition, climate change, and human activity. Arctic and boreal regions and, in particular, Siberian boreal forests are experiencing rising air and ground temperatures with the subsequent degradation of permafrost soils leading to shifts in tree cover and species composition. Compared to the boreal zones of North America or Europe, little is known about how such environmental changes might influence long-term fire regimes in Russia. The larch-dominated eastern Siberian deciduous boreal forests differ markedly from the composition of other boreal forests, yet data about past fire regimes remain sparse. Here, we present a high-resolution macroscopic charcoal record from lacustrine sediments of Lake Khamra (south-west Yakutia, Siberia) spanning the last ca. 2200 years, including information about charcoal particle sizes and morphotypes. Our results reveal a phase of increased charcoal accumulation between 600 and 900 CE, indicative of relatively high amounts of burnt biomass and high fire frequencies. This is followed by an almost 900-year-long period of low charcoal accumulation without significant peaks likely corresponding to cooler climate conditions. After 1750 CE fire frequencies and the relative amount of biomass burnt start to increase again, coinciding with a warming climate and increased anthropogenic land development after Russian colonization. In the 20th century, total charcoal accumulation decreases again to very low levels despite higher fire frequency, potentially reflecting a change in fire management strategies and/or a shift of the fire regime towards more frequent but smaller fires. A similar pattern for different charcoal morphotypes and comparison to a pollen and non-pollen palynomorph (NPP) record from the same sediment core indicate that broad-scale changes in vegetation composition were probably not a major driver of recorded fire regime changes. Instead, the fire regime of the last two millennia at Lake Khamra seems to be controlled mainly by a combination of short-term climate variability and anthropogenic fire ignition and suppression.

show abstract

“…In the Siberian north, the Medieval Warm Period during the tenth century was warmer but wetter compared to the recent period derived from our results. This is opposite to the northeastern part of Siberia, where recent atmospheric drought events significantly increased compared to the past 21 . Earlier warming in springs lead to earlier snowmelt 1 , developing a water shortage for trees by increasing the evapotranspiration in the Siberian subarctic 21 .…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 59%

“…Tree-ring width chronologies from the Siberian subarctic record mainly June-July air temperature signal 11 – 13 . The variation of stable carbon isotopes in tree rings can provide complementary information about changes in precipitation 15 – 19 , sunshine duration 20 , vapor pressure deficit 21 and cloud cover 22 , while oxygen isotopes can record information about atmospheric circulation patterns 16 , 23 – 27 .…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Spring arctic oscillation as a trigger of summer drought in Siberian subarctic over the past 1494 years

Сидорова

Siegwolf

Fonti

et al. 2021

Sci Rep

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Rapid changes in the hydrological and temperature regimes over the past decades at the northern latitudes enhance significantly permafrost degradation accelerating carbon release, increase the frequency of drought events and extensive wildfires. However, the mechanisms and dynamics driving drought events and their influence on Siberian forests are currently the subject of numerous research activities. Newly developed and annually resolved stable carbon and oxygen isotope chronologies of larch tree-ring cellulose (δ13Ccell and δ18Ocell) for the period 516–2009 CE allowed the reconstruction of July precipitation and Arctic Oscillation (AO) in May, respectively. Unprecedented drought events occurred towards twentieth–twenty-first centuries as indicated by the July precipitation reconstruction. Positive AO phases in May were most pronounced during the second part of the first millennium, but also increased in frequency in the modern period of the twentieth–twenty-first centuries. Negative AO phases are associated with cold anomalies and show a remarkable decrease in the nineteenth century caused by a series of major volcanic eruptions. Our findings help explaining the increased frequency of Siberian forest fires over the past decades in Central Siberia consistent with a reduction of summer precipitation, triggered by a positive phase of the Arctic Oscillation in May.

show abstract

Recent atmospheric drying in Siberia is not unprecedented over the last 1,500 years

Cited by 16 publications

References 57 publications

Wildfire history of the boreal forest of southwestern Yakutia (Siberia) over the last two millennia documented by a lake-sedimentary charcoal record

Wildfire history of the boreal forest of southwestern Yakutia (Siberia) over the last two millennia documented by a lake-sedimentary charcoal record

Wildfire history of the boreal forest of south-western Yakutia (Siberia) over the last two millennia documented by a lake-sediment charcoal record

Spring arctic oscillation as a trigger of summer drought in Siberian subarctic over the past 1494 years

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About