Multidecadal climate variability in the north of the Eastern European Plain and the tree-ring growth response

Abstract

The change in annual precipitation, in the humidification conditions and in the frequency of occurrence of the cyclones centers in the north of the East-European Plain in the 20th - early 21st centuries were the subject of this study. The growth of annual precipitation in the region with a rate of 0.7 mm per year in average was accompanied by an increase of cyclonic activity. The rise in the frequency of cyclones occurrence over the north of the plain was associated not only with the global warming. An assessment of the long-period variability of cyclonic activity has shown its spatio-temporal density growth throughout the entire study period. Positive long-term trends of humidification in the west and east of the study area were identified, while the annual humidification of its central part tended to decrease. The largest negative trend of humidification for the whole study period was observed in the region of the Solovki Islands (the north of European Russia), which is confirmed by the coherent response of the spruce tree-ring growth from Bolshoy Solovetsky island.