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Tree rings and volcanic cooling

Nature Geoscience volume 5, pages 836–837 (2012)Cite this article

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To the Editor

In their Letter, Mann and colleagues1 claim to have identified a discrepancy between the degree of volcanic cooling in climate model simulations and the analogous cooling indicated in a tree-ring-based Northern Hemisphere temperature reconstruction2, and attribute it to a putative temporary cessation of tree growth at some sites near the temperature limit for growth. They argue that this growth cessation would lead to missing rings in cool years, thus resulting in underestimation of cooling in the tree-ring record. This suggestion implies that periods of volcanic cooling could result in widespread chronological errors in tree-ring-based temperature reconstructions1,3. Mann and colleagues base their conclusions solely on the evidence of a tree-ring-growth model. Here we point to several factors that challenge this hypothesis of missing tree rings; specifically, we highlight problems in their implementation of the tree-ring model used1, a lack of consideration of uncertainty in the amplitude and spatial pattern of volcanic forcing and associated climate responses, and a lack of any empirical evidence for misdating of tree-ring chronologies.

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Figure 1: Simulated response of tree-ring growth to Northern Hemisphere temperature.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Lamont Doherty Earth Observatory of Columbia University, Palisades, New York, 10964, USA

    Kevin J. Anchukaitis, Edward R. Cook, Rosanne D. D'Arrigo & Rob J. S. Wilson

  2. Department of Geology and Geophysics, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Woods Hole, 02543, Massachusetts, USA

    Kevin J. Anchukaitis

  3. Oeschger Centre for Climate Change Research, University of Bern, Bern, 3012, Switzerland

    Petra Breitenmoser, Ulf Büntgen & David Frank

  4. Climatic Research Unit, School of Environmental Sciences, University of East Anglia, Norwich, NR4 7TJ, UK

    Keith R. Briffa & Thomas M. Melvin

  5. Swiss Federal Research Institute WSL, Birmensdorf, 8903, Switzerland

    Agata Buchwal, Ulf Büntgen & David Frank

  6. Institute of Geoecology and Geoinformation, Adam Mickiewicz University, Poznan, 61-680, Poland

    Agata Buchwal

  7. Department of Geography, Johannes Gutenberg University, Becherweg 21, Mainz, 55099, Germany

    Jan Esper

  8. Department of Geology and Earth System Science Interdisciplinary Center, University of Maryland, 20742, Maryland, USA

    Michael N. Evans

  9. Department of Physical Geography and Quaternary Geology, Bert Bolin Centre for Climate Research, Stockholm University, Stockholm, SE-106 91, Sweden

    Håkan Grudd, Björn E. Gunnarson & Paul J. Krusic

  10. Laboratory of Tree-Ring Research, University of Arizona, Tucson, 87921, Arizona, USA

    Malcolm K. Hughes & Matthew W. Salzer

  11. V.N.Sukachev Institute of Forest SB RAS, Akademgorodok, 660036, Krasnoyarsk, Russia

    Alexander V. Kirdyanov, Alexander V. Shashkin & Eugene A. Vaganov

  12. Institute of Botany, University of Basel, Basel, CH-4056, Switzerland

    Christian Körner

  13. Department of Geography, University of Western Ontario, London, N6A 5C2, Ontario, Canada

    Brian Luckman

  14. Max-Planck-Institut für Meteorologie, Bundesstrasse 53, Hamburg, D-20146, Germany

    Claudia Timmreck

  15. Institute of Forest and Siberian Federal University, 660041, Krasnoyarsk, Russia

    Eugene A. Vaganov

  16. School of Geography and Geosciences, University of St Andrews, KY16 9AL, Fife, UK

    Rob J. S. Wilson

Authors
  1. Kevin J. Anchukaitis
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  17. Brian Luckman
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  18. Thomas M. Melvin
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  19. Matthew W. Salzer
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  20. Alexander V. Shashkin
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  21. Claudia Timmreck
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  22. Eugene A. Vaganov
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  23. Rob J. S. Wilson
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Correspondence to Rob J. S. Wilson.

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Anchukaitis, K., Breitenmoser, P., Briffa, K. et al. Tree rings and volcanic cooling. Nature Geosci 5, 836–837 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1038/ngeo1645

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