WHAT DETERMINES THE WIDTH OF ANNUAL TREE-RINGS IN THE CENTRAL PART OF EAST-EUROPEAN PLAIN?

Abstract

No tree-ring chronologies were reported so far in the International Tree Ring Data Bank for the central part of the East-European Plain. This absence is traditionally explained by the lack of motivation for tree-ring research in this area. Indeed, due to the intense anthropogenic press the old trees are rare in this region and the climatic signal embedded in the ring width is not strong and is always complex. In this study we present the new tree-ring network of 9 ring width chronologies of pine ( Pinus sylvestris ) up to 297 years long in a large region of about 450 km in diameter in the Central Russia (54–57N, 33–40E) and analyze their climatic response. Tree ring growth in the region is controlled by both temperature and precipitation of vegetation period, and all the analyzed chronologies have signifi cant correlation with summer PDSI values (with coeffi cients up to r ≤0.4). All of them were sampled after the year 2010 when a severe summer drought spread over the European part ofRussia. This allowed spatial analysis of 2010 year annual ring (and rings related to the years of other known severe droughts of 20th century) in the context of drought impact on tree growth. This study is a starting point for constructing large tree ring network for further investigation of severity and spatial distribution of droughts in European Russia in the past.