Abstract. Stratospheric volcanic eruptions have far-reaching impacts on
global climate and society. Tree rings can provide valuable climatic
information on these impacts across different spatial and temporal scales. To
detect temperature and hydroclimatic changes after strong stratospheric
Common Era (CE) volcanic eruptions for the last 1500 years (535 CE unknown,
540 CE unknown, 1257 CE Samalas, 1640 CE Parker, 1815 CE Tambora, and
1991 CE
Pinatubo), we measured and analyzed tree-ring width (TRW), maximum latewood
density (MXD), cell wall thickness (CWT), and δ13C and
δ18O in tree-ring cellulose chronologies of climate-sensitive
larch trees from three different Siberian regions (northeastern Yakutia –
YAK, eastern Taimyr – TAY, and Russian Altai – ALT). All tree-ring proxies proved to encode a significant and specific climatic
signal of the growing season. Our findings suggest that TRW, MXD, and CWT
show strong negative summer air temperature anomalies in 536, 541–542, and
1258–1259 at all studied regions. Based on δ13C, 536 was
extremely humid at YAK, as was 537–538 in TAY. No extreme hydroclimatic anomalies
occurred in Siberia after the volcanic eruptions in 1640, 1815, and 1991,
except for 1817 at ALT. The signal stored in δ18O indicated
significantly lower summer sunshine duration in 542 and 1258–1259 at YAK and
536 at ALT. Our results show that trees growing at YAK and ALT mainly
responded the first year after the eruptions, whereas at TAY, the growth
response occurred after 2 years. The fact that differences exist in climate responses to volcanic eruptions –
both in space and time – underlines the added value of a multiple tree-ring
proxy assessment. As such, the various indicators used clearly help to
provide a more realistic picture of the impact of volcanic eruption on past
climate dynamics, which is fundamental for an improved understanding of
climate dynamics, but also for the validation of global climate models.