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Weakening climatic signal since mid-20th century in European larch tree-ring chronologies at different altitudes from the Adamello-Presanella Massif (Italian Alps)

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Anna Coppola ,
Giovanni Leonelli ,
Maria Cristina Salvatore ,
Manuela Pelfini  and
Carlo Baroni
Anna Coppola*
Affiliation:
Dipartimento di Scienze della Terra, Università degli Studi di Pisa, Pisa, Italy
Giovanni Leonelli
Affiliation:
Dipartimento di Scienze della Terra, Università degli Studi di Milano, Milan, Italy
Maria Cristina Salvatore
Affiliation:
Dipartimento di Scienze della Terra, Università degli Studi di Pisa, Pisa, Italy
Manuela Pelfini
Affiliation:
Dipartimento di Scienze della Terra, Università degli Studi di Milano, Milan, Italy
Carlo Baroni
Affiliation:
Dipartimento di Scienze della Terra, Università degli Studi di Pisa, Pisa, Italy
*
*Corresponding author at: Department of Earth Sciences, University of Pisa, Via S. Maria 53, Pisa, Italy. E-mail address:coppola@dst.unipi.it, anna.coppola01@gmail.com (A. Coppola).
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Abstract

Tree rings from temperature-limited environments are highly sensitive climate proxies, widely used to reconstruct past climate parameters for periods prior to the availability of instrumental data and to analyse the effect of recent global warming on tree growth. An analysis of the climatic signal in five high-elevation tree-ring width chronologies of European larch (Larix decidua Mill.) from the tops of five different glacial valleys in the Italian Central Alps revealed that they contain a strong summer-temperature signal and that tree-ring growth is especially influenced by June temperatures. However, a moving correlation function analysis revealed a recent loss of the June temperature signal in the tree-ring chronologies. This signal reduction primarily involves the two lowest-altitude chronologies. It is probable that the observed increasing importance of late-summer temperature for tree-ring growth over the past 50 yr is an effect of the lengthening growing season and of the variations in the climate/tree-ring relationship over time. All the chronologies considered, especially those at the highest altitudes, show an increasing negative influence of June precipitation on tree-ring growth. The climatic signal recorded in tree-ring chronologies from the Italian Central Alps varies over time and is also differentially influenced by climatic parameters according to site elevation.

Keywords

Tree-ringsClimate changeEuropean Alps
Type
Original Articles
Information
Quaternary Research , Volume 77 , Issue 3 , May 2012 , pp. 344 - 354
Copyright
University of Washington

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