1.        Barniak, J., & Krąpiec, M.(2016). The Tree-Ring Method of Estimation of the Effect of IndustrialPollution on Pine (Pinus sylvestris L.) Tree Stands in the Northern Part of theSandomierz Basin (SE Poland). Water, Air, & Soil Pollution, 227(5), 1-10.

In the last 40 years of the twentiethcentury, as a result of the growth in the exploitation and industrialprocessing of sulphur, the northern part of the Sandomierz Basin was one of themost polluted areas of Poland. Forests growing in this region, predominantly theScots pine, offered an opportunity to analyse the degradation of theenvironment during that period using the dendrochronological method. The studywas based on 814 samples, taken from 53 research surfaces belonging to ninelinear transects. The investigations demonstrated that the highest reduction ingrowth occurred during the years 1970–1990. After that period, a considerableimprovement in the condition of the pine trees was observed in most of theresearch plots. The spatial schedule of the trees with reductions reveals aclear relationship with the distance from the emitter i.e. the reductions weresignificantly lower in more distant sites. A distinct weakening of the trees isalso indicated by missing rings, recorded in the years: 1964, 1974, 1978, 1979,1980, 1985, 1990, and 2002. A definite impact on the condition of the treestands was also due to the cone of depression around the Jeziórko mine, thepost-flotation landfills, as well as pollution on a regional scale.

http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11270-016-2862-7

2.        Zhang, R., Shang, H., Yu, S.,He, Q., Yuan, Y., Bolatov, K., & Mambetov, B. T. (2016). Tree‐ring‐basedprecipitation reconstruction in southern Kazakhstan, reveals droughtvariability since AD 1770. International Journal of Climatology.

In this article, we developed atree-ring-width chronology of Schrenk spruce (Picea schrenkiana Fisch. et Mey)in southern Kazakhstan. Climate-growth response result showed that theprecipitation from the previous June to current May was the principal limitedfactor of radial growth. We also obtained a 246-year reconstruction of June–Mayprecipitation in southern Kazakhstan. The reconstruction explains 39.7% of thevariance in precipitation records during the 1902–2013 calibration periods. Inaddition, the precipitation over the past 246 years in southern Kazakhstan hasexperienced six wetter periods and seven drier ones, and the extreme droughtyears were 1837, 1879, 1917 and 1945. From 1985 to 2004, precipitation hasexperienced longer and more rapid wetting, but the trend of precipitation hasdecreased in the past few years. The reconstructed series of precipitation isconsistent with the historic precipitation/Palmer Drought Severity Index of thewestern Tianshan Mountains. Here, high precipitation variability occurredduring 1770–1800 and 1900-present, while 1800–1900 was relatively calm.Meanwhile, there was large power in the 2- to 7-year short-period and over the34- to 35- and 40- to 43-year long-periods. We suggest the precipitationvariability may be associated with large-scale oscillations in the climatesystem. The reconstruction sheds new light on precipitation variability and thechanges in a region where the climate history over the past several centuriesis poorly understood.

http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/joc.4736/full

3.        Battipaglia, G., Campelo, F.,Vieira, J., Grabner, M., De Micco, V., Nabais, C., ... & Di Filippo, A.(2016). Structure and Function of Intra–Annual Density Fluctuations: Mind theGaps. Frontiers in Plant Science, 7, 595.

Tree rings are natural archives of climateand environmental information with a yearly resolution. Indeed, woodanatomical, chemical and other properties of tree rings are a synthesis ofseveral intrinsic, environmental factors, and interconnected processes actingduring tree growth. In particular, Intra-Annual Density Fluctuations (IADFs)can be considered as tree-ring anomalies that can be used to better understandtree growth and to reconstruct past climate conditions with intra-annualresolution. However, the ecophysiological processes behind IADF formation, aswell as their functional impact, remain unclear. Are IADFs resulting from aprompt adjustment to fluctuations in environmental conditions to avoidstressful conditions and/or to take advantage from favorable conditions? Inthis paper we discuss: (1) the influence of climatic factors on the formationof IADFs; (2) the occurrence of IADFs in different species and environments;(3) the potential of new approaches to study IADFs and identify theirtriggering factors. Our final aim is to underscore the advantages offered bynetwork analyses of data and the importance of high-resolution measurements togain insight into IADFs formation processes and their relations with climaticconditions, including extreme weather events.

http://journal.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/fpls.2016.00595/abstract

4.        Meseguer‐Ruiz, O.,Olcina Cantos, J., Sarricolea, P., & Martín‐Vide, J.(2016). The temporal fractality of precipitation in mainland Spain and theBalearic Islands and its relation to other precipitation variability indices.International Journal of Climatology.

Recent years have seen a rise in researchinto the behaviour of precipitation variability on account of the applicationof new statistical techniques with a longstanding tradition in other fields.Fractal is a word used to refer to regular objects or processes that cannot bedefined by the classical Euclidian mathematics. The fractal dimension of thetemporal distribution of precipitation (D) is an indicator of the property ofself-similarity in rainfall distribution at different time intervals. While itsspatial meaning has previously been developed extensively and is well defined,the interpretation of the concept of fractality applied to the temporaldistribution is abstract. The overarching goal of this article is to giveclimatic significance to this indicator. To this end, data logged at 10-minintervals from 44 weather stations in mainland Spain and the Balearic Islandsfor the period from 1997 to 2010 has been employed. The D values obtainedranged between 1.4499 for the observatory in Ibiza and 1.6039 for theobservatory in Jaca. The fractal dimension presents a significant and goodnegative correlation (−0.55) with the concentration index (CI), and asignificant and good positive correlation (0.67) with entropy. The correlationof D with other traditionally used indices, such as the coefficient ofvariation or the consecutive disparity index is very limited, as this indicatoris more focused on the distribution of precipitation intervals than on thetotal accumulated rainfall over a given period. In an endeavour to developmultivariate models that explain the behaviour of D, only two-variable modelscan be obtained, which account for most of the variability and that involve theCI or entropy. Self-similarity is therefore associated with the regularrecurrence of precipitation intervals, which is more evident in thoseobservatories with higher D values.

http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/joc.4744/full

5.        Rochner, M. L., &Grissino-Mayer, H. D. (2016). Testing the Feasibility of DendrogeomorphicStudies in the Southeastern US on Mt. Le Conte, Great Smoky Mountains NationalPark, Tennessee, USA. Geographical Bulletin, 57(1).

Dendrogeomorphic analyses of mass movementevents have been sparingly conducted at sites in the western United States, andare especially uncommon in the eastern U.S. The goal of this study was todetermine if southeastern tree species in Great Smoky Mountains National Park(GSMNP) record evidence of debris slides in their tree-ring record. Followinginitial reconnaissance on three debris slide scars on Mt. Le Conte in GSMNP, weperformed preliminary dendrogeomorphic analysis on one of the slides, LC01. Thisslide is considered, although not thoroughly documented, to have occurredfollowing a cloudburst on September 1, 1951. The identification of suppressedgrowth beginning in 1952 confirmed the correspondence of the debris slide atLC01 with the cloudburst event and, combined with the identification ofaccessible and discernable evidence of the impact of debris slides on trees,served as confirmation of current and future use of dendrogeomorphic methods onMt. Le Conte and in GSMNP.

6.        Steinschneider, S., Ho, M.,Cook, E. R., & Lall, U. (2016). Can PDSI inform extreme precipitation?: An explorationwith a 500 year long paleoclimate reconstruction over the United States. WaterResources Research.

This study explores whether it is possibleto reconstruct the frequency of extreme precipitation occurrence across thecontiguous United States (CONUS) using the Living Blended Drought Atlas (LBDA),a 500-year paleoclimate reconstruction of the summer (June-August) PalmerDrought Severity Index (PDSI). We first identify regions of the country wherethe LBDA may reflect the occurrence of extremes based on their seasonality andcontribution to total annual moisture delivery. Correlation measures are usedto assess the relationship between the frequencies of extreme precipitationoccurrence and both the instrumental monthly PDSI and the annual LBDA estimatedPDSI. Extreme precipitation is found to account for a large portion of totalprecipitation west of the Mississippi River and clusters in particular seasons(winter and summer), supporting a strong relationship with the LBDA withoutmuch information loss from the instrumental PDSI data. Dimension reductiontechniques are used to explore the joint spatiotemporal structure of extremeprecipitation occurrence and LBDA across the country. The primary modes ofvariability of the LBDA and extreme precipitation occurrence relate remarkablywell for a region centered over the Southwest that exhibits an ENSO-liketime-frequency structure. Generalized linear models (GLMs) are used todemonstrate the feasibility of reconstructing the annual extreme precipitationfrequency over the 500-year pre-historic record at two sites in the Southwestand Southern Plains. GLM-based reconstructions show a high degree of structuredvariability in the likelihood of extreme precipitation occurrences over thepre-historic record.

http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/2016WR018712/full

7.        Piperno, D. R. (2016). Standardevaluations of bomb curves and age calibrations along with consideration ofenvironmental and biological variability show the rigor of phytolith dates onmodern neotropical plants: Review of comment by Santos, Alexandre, and Prior.Journal of Archaeological Science.

Santos et al. claim that a recent phytolith14C study by Piperno of Neotropical plants that grew during the post-bomb eraprovided anomalously old ages due to 14C depletion. They argue the depletionsource is likely old carbon in soils transported into plants via root uptake.Here I show: 1) their claims for anomalous 14C depletions in phytoliths areunfounded because they fail to consider uncertainties created in the bomb curvefrom local and regional environmental variability and other factors shown tolead to bomb curve offsets in post-bomb 14C study, 2) they error by notcalibrating the phytolith dates, a standard procedure with post-bomb 14Cdeterminations, 3) they inexplicably consider an ancient (1640 14Cyr B.P) agefor one of the dated samples to be accurate when (a) it is known the sample wastreated with substances made from fossil fuels that were not removed with theextraction process, and (b) the amount of radiocarbon dead carbon required togenerate the ancient age from SOM is unreasonable, and 4) their theory that oldsoil carbon from root uptake is sequestered in phytoliths causing significantskews to phytolith ages is not supported by accumulated evidence from ancient,and now modern Neotropical contexts.

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0305440316000224

8.        Zalloni, E., de Luis, M.,Campelo, F., Novak, K., De Micco, V., Di Filippo, A., ... & Battipaglia, G.(2016). Climatic Signals from Intra-annual Density Fluctuation Frequency inMediterranean Pines at a Regional Scale. Frontiers in Plant Science, 7, 579.

Tree rings provide information about theclimatic conditions during the growing season by recording them in differentanatomical features, such as intra-annual density fluctuations (IADFs). IADFsare intra-annual changes of wood density appearing as latewood-like cellswithin earlywood, or earlywood-like cells within latewood. The occurrence ofIADFs is dependent on the age and size of the tree, and it is triggered byclimatic drivers. The variations of IADF frequency of different species andtheir dependence on climate across a wide geographical range have still to beexplored. The objective of this study is to investigate the effect of age,tree-ring width and climate on IADF formation and frequency at a regional scaleacross the Mediterranean Basin in Pinus halepensis Mill., Pinus pinaster Ait.,and Pinus pinea L. The analyzed tree-ring network was composed of P. pineatrees growing at 10 sites (2 in Italy, 4 in Spain, and 4 in Portugal), P.pinaster from 19 sites (2 in Italy, 13 in Spain, and 4 in Portugal), and P.halepensis from 38 sites in Spain. The correlations between IADF frequency andmonthly minimum, mean and maximum temperatures, as well as between IADFfrequency and total precipitation, were analyzed. A significant negativerelationship between IADF frequency and tree-ring age was found for the threeMediterranean pines. Moreover, IADFs were more frequent in wider rings than innarrower ones, although the widest rings showed a reduced IADF frequency. Wetconditions during late summer/early autumn triggered the formation of IADFs inthe three species. Our results suggest the existence of a common climaticdriver for the formation of IADFs in Mediterranean pines, highlighting thepotential use of IADF frequency as a proxy for climate reconstructions withgeographical resolution.

http://journal.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/fpls.2016.00579/full

9.        Trotsiuk, V., Svoboda, M.,Weber, P., Pederson, N., Klesse, S., Janda, P., ... & Mateju, L. (2016).The legacy of disturbance on individual tree and stand-level abovegroundbiomass accumulation and stocks in primary mountain Picea abies forests. ForestEcology and Management, 373, 108-115.

Disturbances, both natural and humaninduced, influence forest dynamics, ecosystem functioning, and ecosystemservices. Here, we aim to evaluate the consequences of natural disturbances onthe magnitude and dynamics of tree- and stand-level biomass accumulation fromdecadal to centennial scales. We use tree-ring data from 2301 trees andbiometric data from 4909 trees sampled in 96 plots (each 1000 m2) to quantifythe influence of mixed severity disturbance regimes on annual abovegroundbiomass increment (AGBI) and total aboveground biomass accumulation (AGB)across a mountainous monotypic Norway spruce (Picea abies (L.) Karst.) primaryforest. We hypothesise that the multiple internal and external factorsconstraining tree growth will cause differences in tree and stand-level biomasstrajectories in these natural forests.

Although we found that tree-level AGBgrowth increases with tree size, we also found that tree age and disturbancelegacies plays a crucial role for AGB in the investigated Norway spruceforests. Importantly, while younger trees of the same diameter class have anaverage current AGBI rate that is ～225% higher than older trees (300–400 years), we find trees thathave been suppressed for up to 120 years can respond vigorously whencompetition is reduced. On average, post disturbance AGBI was ～400% greater than pre-disturbance AGBI. Growth of suppressed trees,independent of their age, followed similar trajectories after canopy accession.While aboveground biomass generally increased through time, the time sincedisturbance and disturbance severity are important co-predictors forstand-level AGBI and AGB. These forests regained most of the above groundliving biomass over short interval (～50 years) after low intensity disturbances. The highest stand-levelliving AGB was observed on plots that experienced >40% canopy removal160–190 years ago, whereas the highest AGBI occurred in plots disturbedrecently within the past 40–50 years.

Our results emphasize the importance ofincluding both individual tree age and disturbance legacies to accuratelycharacterize biomass dynamics and trajectories in forest ecosystems.Importantly, the period of time that a tree is in the canopy, and not tree age,modulates the trajectory of tree level AGBI. Growth rates begin to declineafter ～30 years(tree-rings width) and ～100 years (AGBI)in the canopy. We demonstrate that even late-seral forests can rapidly regainbiomass lost to low intensity disturbance.

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S037811271630202X

10.    Li, X., Zhou, X., Liu, W.,Wang, Z., He, Y., & Xu, L. (2016). Carbon and oxygen isotopic records fromLake Tuosu over the last 120years in the Qaidam Basin, Northwestern China: Theimplications for paleoenvironmental reconstruction. Global and PlanetaryChange.

Isotopic compositions of total organiccarbon (TOC) and authigenic carbonate in lakes have been widely used toreconstruct paleoclimatic changes and the depositional environments of lakesediments. However, since these proxies are often controlled by multiple environmentalfactors, detailed examinations of modern environmental processes is necessarybefore further applying them into paleoclimatic studies, especially inarid/semi-arid northwestern China. Here we generate High-resolution multi-proxysedimentary records from Lake Tuosu, a hydrologically closed, saline andalkaline lake located at the north margin of the Qaidam Basin, through analysisof carbon isotope of TOC, and δ18O and δ13C values of ostracods over the last120 years. Together with the meteorological data (precipitation andtemperature), lake area record, and other tree-ring evidence, we examine howthese sedimentary indices respond to changes in hydrologic balance and climateat interannual to decadal timescales. We found that sedimentary δ13Corg valuesresemble the variation of lake areas of Lake Tuosu over the last 40 years,suggesting that δ13Corg values would be an ideal indicator of lake area/levelfluctuations and thus effective moisture variations (precipitation vs.evaporation). However, ostracod δ18O, which was previously used as proxies ofeffective precipitation, is not well correlated with δ13Corg values in LakeTuosu. Therefore, the changes of ostracod δ18O values cannot bestraightforwardly explained as the effective precipitation. Instead, theisotopic composition of carbonate would be additionally controlled by otherfactors including isotopic compositions of input water and drainage pattern.

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0921818116300911

11.    Masiokas, M. H., Christie, D.A., Le Quesne, C., Pitte, P., Ruiz, L., Villalba, R., ... & McPhee, J.(2016). Reconstructing the annual mass balance of the Echaurren Norte glacier(Central Andes, 33.5° S) using local and regional hydroclimatic data. TheCryosphere, 10(2), 927-940.

Despite the great number and variety ofglaciers in southern South America, in situ glacier mass-balance records areextremely scarce and glacier–climate relationships are still poorly understoodin this region. Here we use the longest (>  35 years) and most complete insitu mass-balance record, available for the Echaurren Norte glacier (ECH) inthe Andes at  ～  33.5° S, todevelop a minimal glacier surface mass-balance model that relies on nearbymonthly precipitation and air temperature data as forcing. This basic model isable to explain 78 % of the variance in the annual glacier mass-balance recordover the 1978–2013 calibration period. An attribution assessment identifiedprecipitation variability as the dominant forcing modulating annual massbalances at ECH, with temperature variations likely playing a secondary role. Aregionally averaged series of mean annual streamflow records from both sides ofthe Andes between  ～  30 and 37° S isthen used to estimate, through simple linear regression, this glacier's annualmass-balance variations since 1909. The reconstruction model captures 68 % ofthe observed glacier mass-balance variability and shows three periods ofsustained positive mass balances embedded in an overall negative trend over thepast 105 years. The three periods of sustained positive mass balances (centeredin the 1920s–1930s, in the 1980s and in the first decade of the 21st century)coincide with several documented glacier advances in this region. Similar trendsobserved in other shorter glacier mass-balance series suggest that theEchaurren Norte glacier reconstruction is representative of larger-scaleconditions and could be useful for more detailed glaciological, hydrologicaland climatological assessments in this portion of the Andes.

http://www.the-cryosphere.net/10/927/2016/tc-10-927-2016.html

12.    Sharma, S., Magnuson, J. J.,Batt, R. D., Winslow, L. A., Korhonen, J., & Aono, Y. (2016). Directobservations of ice seasonality reveal changes in climate over the past 320–570years. Scientific Reports, 6, 25061.

Lake and river ice seasonality (dates ofice freeze and breakup) responds sensitively to climatic change andvariability. We analyzed climate-related changes using direct humanobservations of ice freeze dates (1443–2014) for Lake Suwa, Japan, and of icebreakup dates (1693–2013) for Torne River, Finland. We found a rich array ofchanges in ice seasonality of two inland waters from geographically distantregions: namely a shift towards later ice formation for Suwa and earlier springmelt for Torne, increasing frequencies of years with warm extremes, changinginter-annual variability, waning of dominant inter-decadal quasi-periodicdynamics, and stronger correlations of ice seasonality with atmospheric CO2concentration and air temperature after the start of the Industrial Revolution.Although local factors, including human population growth, land use change, andwater management influence Suwa and Torne, the general patterns of iceseasonality are similar for both systems, suggesting that global processesincluding climate change and variability are driving the long-term changes inice seasonality.

http://www.nature.com/articles/srep25061

13.    Opała, M., Niedźwiedź, T.,Rahmonov, O., Owczarek, P., & Małarzewski, Ł. (2016). Towards improving theCentral Asian dendrochronological network—New data from Tajikistan, Pamir-Alay.Dendrochronologia.

Millennial long tree-ring records arecrucial for better understanding temperature and hydroclimatic variability overthe globe. Juniper is one of particularly long-lived species, which can providemore than a thousand-year record, especially in Central Asia. However, there isa lack of dendrochronological series from the Pamir Mountains. Here we reportthe first 1010-year (AD 1005–2014) juniper tree-ring chronology from themountain ranges of north-western Tajikistan, the western Pamir-Alay. We presentthe potential of Juniperus semiglobosa and Juniperus seravshanica in developingmillennia-long records. We sampled three study sites at the elevations from2200 to 3500 m. In general, the climate-growth analyses show that radial growthof the Himalayan pencil juniper is positively correlated with the winterprecipitation and spring temperature. At some sites tree rings were alsopositively correlated with summer temperature. Our findings demonstrate theimportance of developing the tree-ring data network for the Pamir-Alay and itspotential for reconstruction of hydroclimatic variability over the lastthousand years in this region.

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1125786516300261