Dendroclimatology and historical climatology of Voronezh region, European Russia, since 1790s

Abstract

ABSTRACTExisting high‐resolution reconstructions of hydroclimate variability in Europe are lacking natural proxy data from European Russia. For this reason, developing new hydroclimate proxies for this vast region is crucial. It is even more important, because drought evidences from the forest‐steppe region of European Russia will elucidate the eastern borders of large‐scale meteorological events that had been covering large parts of Europe in the past. In this study, we provide new tree‐ring chronologies of Pinus sylvestris L. for the site in the southernmost natural pine forest in European Russia. Based on these chronologies, we develop a quantitative drought reconstruction and disclose the driest years in the region since 1790s. The reconstruction of Standardized Precipitation Evapotranspiration Index explains 29–39% of instrumental period variability, it adequately tracks low‐frequency (30–50 years) variations of drought indices as well as extreme events. Collection of historical evidences from periodicals of the 19th century and other historical evidences helped to verify the new reconstruction. Using gridded precipitation reconstruction over Europe, we showed a possible existence of large‐scale hydroclimate events that had occurred in the East European forest‐steppe region in the 19th century. Possible connections of drought events in European Russia with Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation and Scandinavian teleconnection pattern are discussed. We argue that being a complex natural archive, ring width of pine in Voronezh region can be successfully used as an estimator of prolonged droughts (1–2 years).