Tree rings: a peek into the past of climate change

2010 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mohammed Yahia
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Tree Rings ◽  
The Past

scholarly journals Application of dendroclimatology in evaluation of climatic changes

2018 ◽  
Vol 64 (No. 3) ◽  
pp. 139-147 ◽  
Author(s):  
Khaleghi Mohammad Reza
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Tree Rings ◽  
Arid Regions ◽  
Ring Width ◽  
Climatic Changes ◽  
The Past ◽  
Temperature And Precipitation ◽  
Temporal And Spatial ◽  
Artificial Neural Network Ann ◽  
High Degree

The present study tends to describe the survey of climatic changes in the case of the Bojnourd region of North Khorasan, Iran. Climate change due to a fragile ecosystem in semi-arid and arid regions such as Iran is one of the most challenging climatological and hydrological problems. Dendrochronology, which uses tree rings to their exact year of formation to analyse temporal and spatial patterns of processes in the physical and cultural sciences, can be used to evaluate the effects of climate change. In this study, the effects of climate change were simulated using dendrochronology (tree rings) and an artificial neural network (ANN) for the period from 1800 to 2015. The present study was executed using the Quercus castaneifolia C.A. Meyer. Tree-ring width, temperature, and precipitation were the input parameters for the study, and climate change parameters were the outputs. After the training process, the model was verified. The verified network and tree rings were used to simulate climatic parameter changes during the past times. The results showed that the integration of dendroclimatology and an ANN renders a high degree of accuracy and efficiency in the simulation of climate change. The results showed that in the last two centuries, the climate of the study area changed from semiarid to arid, and its annual precipitation decreased significantly.

scholarly journals Dendroclimatology as the Part of Dendrochronology

2019 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
20Th Century ◽  
Tree Rings ◽  
Limiting Factors ◽  
Weather Data ◽  
Future Climate Change ◽  
Forest Steppe ◽  
Scientific Publications ◽  
The Past ◽  
Selection Of

As a the brench of dendrochronology, dendroclimatology assesses the climate in the past and uses tree rings and weather data, mainly precipitation and temperatures, to assess future climate change. The rate of publications on dendroclimatology was slow during the first half of the 20th century, but it has grown exponentially since the 1960s. More than 3,000 of the 12,000 scientific publications now listed in the dendrochronology's online bibliography contain the word "climate". The purpose of the paper is to review the history of dendro-climatology and its basic provisions. The American astronomer A.I. Douglas at the beginning of the 20th century developed the methods and principles that we use today. The basic principles of dendrochronology are borrowed from general ecology: the uniformitarian principle, the principle of limiting factors, the principle of aggregate tree growth, the principle of ecological emplitude, the principle of crossdating, the principle of cite celection. The basic methods in dendrochronology are: selection of research sites, selection of cores, cross-dating, indexation of tree-ring chronologies. Statistical methods for quantifying tree to climate ratios are briefly discussed, as well as correlation analysis and response function. Examples of dendroclimatological studies are given. F.G. Kolyshchuk proposed an original technique for the study of radial pine growth in the Carpathian Mountains. He found that during the last 200 - 230 years different species of pine (Pinus mughus Scop., Sembra L.) growing in the high mountains and inter-forested marshes (P. Silvestris L., P. Mughus Scop.) In the Ukrainian Carpathians it’s revealed a similar growth rate in tree rings, which may be evidence of climatic conditioning of the dynamics of growth and the same response of these pine species to climate change. An example study of the response of pine radial growth to climate variations in the forest-steppe zone shows an increase in the sensitivity of stands due to climate warming. Conclusions. Dendroclimatology is an interdisciplinary science that helps to determine how similar or not climate is today to the past and continues to play an extremely important role in the study of the response of forest ecosystems to climate change.

scholarly journals New dendroclimatological research in oak, S (Quercus Frainetto Ten.) forestry in Šumadija-Region- (Central Serbia) as a basis for climate change monitoring

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 249-259
Author(s):  
Severin Šikanja ◽  
Nevena Milovanović
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Climatic Change ◽  
Tree Rings ◽  
Climatic Parameter ◽  
The Past ◽  
Temperature And Precipitation ◽  
Quercus Frainetto ◽  
Temporal And Spatial ◽  
Artificial Neural Network Ann ◽  
High Degree

In this work present study to describe the survey of climatic change in the case in Šumadija-Central Serbia. Climate change due to a fragile ecosystem in semi-arid, and arid region such as Serbia is one of the most challenging climatological and hydrological problems. Dendrochronology, wich uses tree rings to their exact year of formation to analyse temporal and spatial patterns of processes in the physical and cultural sciences, can be used to evaluate the effects of climate change. In this study, the effects of climate change werw simulated using dendrochronology (tree rings) and an artificial neural network (ANN) for the period from 1900—2015. The present study was executed using the (Quercus frainetto Ten.). Tree rings width, temperature and precipitation were the input parameters for the study, and climate change parameters were the outputs. After the training process, the model was verified. The verified network and tree rings were used to simulate climatic parameter changes during the past times. The results showed that the integration of dendroclimatology and an ANN renders a high degree of accuracy and efficiency in the simulation of climatic change. The results showed that the climatic of the study area changed from semiarid, to arid, and its annual precipitation decreased significantly.

Climatic, environmental and pollution traceability of the monumental Olive and Cedar trees of Lebanon: Lessons from the past to the present

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nagham Tabaja ◽  
Lamis Chalak ◽  
David Amouroux ◽  
Emmanuel Tessier ◽  
Delphine Bosch ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Tree Rings ◽  
Mediterranean Basin ◽  
Climatic Data ◽  
Isotopic Study ◽  
Stem Wood ◽  
The Past ◽  
Interdisciplinary Approaches ◽  
The Mediterranean ◽  
The Mediterranean Basin

<p>Among the Mediterranean vegetation, olive and cedar trees are significant symbols, with the former considered among the oldest trees in the Mediterranean basin. In Lebanon, those trees survive at diverse altitudes, standing as a testimony to their long history and socio-economic role.</p><p>The Mediterranean basin is classified as an area vulnerable to climate change. Its species persisted in this area due to the low amplitude of temperature change between the last glacial period and the Holocene. The Middle East and North Africa region is a major contributor worldwide to global health and climate change emissions over the past three decades.</p><p>Understanding how these trees have and will survive the different cultural, climatic and environmental shocks, and how will they continue to persist among upcoming changes, is a scientific challenge.</p><p>Trees are considered a good archive for environmental and climatic data. Using stable isotope (C,N,S,O,H) to study tree response to climatic and environmental factors are now widely used. They can act as important tracers of how plants today and in the past, have interacted and responded to their abiotic and biotic environments. The O and C isotopic of bulk wood or purified cellulose from tree rings, has offered good record of the ecophysiology of the plants, resources they use, and environments they inhabit, now and in the past.</p><p>Due to the development of MCICPMS technique, Hg, Pb contents and isotopes can be analyzed to help reveal the problem between climate and anthropogenic contamination pollution effect. We can track the source of pollution and measure concentration through the content and isotopes within different tree tissues (leave, stem, wood). Thus, pollution and climatic records can be obtained on tree archives over various time scales through metal isotopes (Pb, Hg) and stable isotopes (CNHOS).</p><p>This study aims to examine the present and past conditions of monumental olive and cedar trees, through studying and comparing the present and past isotopic and radiogenic variation; and create a dataset to help anticipate and predict climatic discrepancies using interdisciplinary approaches.</p><p>Two ancient olive groves were selected, Bchaaleh (1300m-North), Kawkaba (672m-South), and one cedar tree site, Maasser El Chouf (1700m-Mount Lebanon).</p><p> Leaves, stems and rainwater samples are collected on monthly basis, and soil sediment and litter collected on quarterly basis from the olive sites. For cedar, seasonal collection is conducted to achieve a multi isotopic study for the present. To create data for the past, 212 wood cores were collected from 32 centennial olive trees and 21 cores were extracted of 8 cedar trees.</p><p>We expect to establish a database of stable and radiogenic isotopic signatures of recent and past olive and cedar elements. In addition to having a comprehensive interpretation of stable and radiogenic isotopic variations at seasonal scale through the applied time series, and calibrating between the isotopes of the tree and current climate. The study of trace elements contents, Pb and Hg isotopic ratio, will allow the reconstruction of anthropogenic pollution evolution of trees, tracing the sources of pollution.</p><p>Tree rings will provide information on paleoclimate and dating it back from the beginning of the industrial period.</p>

Denouement: World Politics, Systemic Leadership, and Climate Change

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
William R. Thompson ◽  
Leila Zakhirova
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Global Warming ◽  
World Politics ◽  
First Century ◽  
Modern World ◽  
Climate Fluctuations ◽  
The Past ◽  
Agrarian Economy ◽  
Historical Processes

In this final chapter, we conclude by recapitulating our argument and evidence. One goal of this work has been to improve our understanding of the patterns underlying the evolution of world politics over the past one thousand years. How did we get to where we are now? Where and when did the “modern” world begin? How did we shift from a primarily agrarian economy to a primarily industrial one? How did these changes shape world politics? A related goal was to examine more closely the factors that led to the most serious attempts by states to break free of agrarian constraints. We developed an interactive model of the factors that we thought were most likely to be significant. Finally, a third goal was to examine the linkages between the systemic leadership that emerged from these historical processes and the global warming crisis of the twenty-first century. Climate change means that the traditional energy platforms for system leadership—coal, petroleum, and natural gas—have become counterproductive. The ultimate irony is that we thought that the harnessing of carbon fuels made us invulnerable to climate fluctuations, while the exact opposite turns out to be true. The more carbon fuels are consumed, the greater the damage done to the atmosphere. In many respects, the competition for systemic leadership generated this problem. Yet it is unclear whether systemic leadership will be up to the task of resolving it.

scholarly journals Ensemble models on palaeoclimate to predict India's groundwater challenge

2013 ◽  
Vol 2 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Partha Sarathi Datta
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Climate Models ◽  
Global Climate ◽  
Global Climate Models ◽  
Humid Climate ◽  
Ensemble Models ◽  
North West ◽  
The Past ◽  
The North ◽  
14C Age

In many parts of the world, freshwater crisis is largely due to increasing water consumption and pollution by rapidly growing population and aspirations for economic development, but, ascribed usually to the climate. However, limited understanding and knowledge gaps in the factors controlling climate and uncertainties in the climate models are unable to assess the probable impacts on water availability in tropical regions. In this context, review of ensemble models on δ18O and δD in rainfall and groundwater, 3H- and 14C- ages of groundwater and 14C- age of lakes sediments helped to reconstruct palaeoclimate and long-term recharge in the North-west India; and predict future groundwater challenge. The annual mean temperature trend indicates both warming/cooling in different parts of India in the past and during 1901–2010. Neither the GCMs (Global Climate Models) nor the observational record indicates any significant change/increase in temperature and rainfall over the last century, and climate change during the last 1200 yrs BP. In much of the North-West region, deep groundwater renewal occurred from past humid climate, and shallow groundwater renewal from limited modern recharge over the past decades. To make water management to be more responsive to climate change, the gaps in the science of climate change need to be bridged.

scholarly journals Chlorine-free synthesis: An overview

2012 ◽  
Vol 84 (3) ◽  
pp. 411-423 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pietro Tundo
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Industrial Revolution ◽  
High Energy ◽  
Special Topic ◽  
Ozone Layer Depletion ◽  
The Past ◽  
Process Chemistry ◽  
End Products ◽  
Chemical Strategies ◽  
Topic Issue

Since the Industrial Revolution, chlorine has featured as an iconic molecule in process chemistry even though its production by electrolysis of sodium chloride is very energy-intensive. Owing to its high energy and reactivity, chlorine allows the manufacture of chlorinated derivatives in a very easy way: AlCl3, SnCl4, TiCl4, SiCl4, ZnCl2, PCl3, PCl5, POCl3, COCl2, etc. in turn are pillar intermediates in the production of numerous everyday goods. This kind of chloride chemistry is widely used because the energy is transferred to these intermediates, making further syntheses easy. The environmental and health constraints (toxicity and eco-toxicity, ozone layer depletion) and the growing need for energy (energy efficiency, climate change) force us to take advantage from available knowledge to develop new chemical strategies. Substitution of chlorine in end products in compounds where “chlorine is used in the making” means that we avoid electrolysis as primary energetic source; this makes chemistry “without chlorine” considerably more difficult and illustrates why it has not found favor in the past. The rationale behind this Special Topic issue is to seek useful and industrially relevant examples for alternatives to chlorine in synthesis, so as to facilitate the development of industrially relevant and implementable breakthrough technologies.

Alpine sparsely vegetated areas in the eastern Qilian Mountains shrank with climate warming in the past 30 years

2018 ◽  
Vol 42 (4) ◽  
pp. 415-430 ◽  
Author(s):  
Biao Zeng ◽  
Fuguang Zhang ◽  
Taibao Yang ◽  
Jiaguo Qi ◽  
Mihretab G Ghebrezgabher
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Climate Warming ◽  
Vegetation Index ◽  
Normalized Difference Vegetation Index ◽  
Regional Scale ◽  
Qilian Mountains ◽  
Visual Interpretation ◽  
Hydrothermal Conditions ◽  
The Past ◽  
Distribution Ranges

Alpine sparsely vegetated areas (ASVAs) in mountains are sensitive to climate change and rarely studied. In this study, we focused on the response of ASVA distribution to climate change in the eastern Qilian Mountains (EQLM) from the 1990s to the 2010s. The ASVA distribution ranges in the EQLM during the past three decades were obtained from the Thematic Mapper remote sensing digital images by using the threshold of normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) and artificial visual interpretation. Results indicated that the ASVA shrank gradually in the EQLM and lost its area by approximately 11.4% from the 1990s to the 2010s. The shrunken ASVA with markedly more area than the expanded one was mainly located at altitudes from 3700 m to 4300 m, which were comparatively lower than the average altitude of the ASVA distribution ranges. This condition led to the low ASVA boundaries in the EQLM moving upwards at a significant velocity of 22 m/decade at the regional scale. This vertical zonal process was modulated by topography-induced differences in local hydrothermal conditions. Thus, the ASVA shrank mainly in its lower parts with mild and sunny slopes. Annual maximum NDVI in the transition zone increased significantly and showed a stronger positive correlation with significantly increasing temperature than insignificant precipitation variations during 1990–2015. The ASVA shrinkage and up-shifting of its boundary were attributed to climate warming, which facilitated the upper part of alpine meadow in the EQLM by releasing the low temperature limitation on vegetation growth.

Climate change features along the Brahmaputra Valley in the past 26 years and possible causes

2010 ◽  
Vol 106 (4) ◽  
pp. 649-660 ◽  
Author(s):  
Minhong Song ◽  
Yaoming Ma ◽  
Yu Zhang ◽  
Maoshan Li ◽  
Weiqiang Ma ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
The Past ◽  
Brahmaputra Valley

Understanding the decay of stone-built cultural heritage

2008 ◽  
Vol 32 (4) ◽  
pp. 439-461 ◽  
Author(s):  
B.J. Smith ◽  
M. Gomez-Heras ◽  
S. McCabe
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Natural Environment ◽  
Management Strategies ◽  
Building Stone ◽  
Stone Decay ◽  
Building Stones ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Past ◽  
Built Heritage ◽  
Common Misconceptions

The problem of the decay and conservation of stone-built heritage is a complex one, requiring input across many disciplines to identify appropriate remedial steps and management strategies. Over the past few decades, earth scientists have brought a unique perspective to this challenging area, drawing on traditions and knowledge obtained from research into landscape development and the natural environment. This paper reviews the crucial themes that have arisen particularly, although not exclusively, from the work of physical geographers — themes that have sought to correct common misconceptions held by the public, as well as those directly engaged in construction and conservation, regarding the nature, causes and controls of building stone decay. It also looks to the future, suggesting how the behaviour of building stones (and hence the work of stone decay scientists) might alter in response to the looming challenge of climate change.

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