Although the effect of pollution on forest health and decline received much attention in the 1980s, it has not been considered to explain the ‘Divergence Problem’ in dendroclimatology; a decoupling of tree growth from rising air temperatures since the 1970s. Here we use physical and biogeochemical measurements of hundreds of living and dead conifers to reconstruct the impact of heavy industrialisation around Norilsk in northern Siberia. Moreover, we develop a forward model with surface irradiance forcing to quantify long‐distance effects of anthropogenic emissions on the functioning and productivity of Siberia’s taiga. Downwind from the world’s most polluted Arctic region, tree mortality rates of up to 100% have destroyed 24,000 km2 boreal forest since the 1960s, coincident with dramatic increases in atmospheric sulphur, copper, and nickel concentrations. In addition to regional ecosystem devastation, we demonstrate how ‘Arctic Dimming’ can explain the circumpolar ‘Divergence Problem’, and discuss implications on the terrestrial carbon cycle.

No abstract

We present the first results of application of long-term tree-ring chronologies for dating seismically triggered rockfalls and determining the upper age of Holocene rockfalls in southeastern Altai. Based on the results of seismic dendrochronological analysis, dating of penetrating wood injuries is proposed and tested, and the criterion for the distinguishing of seismically triggered rockfalls among slope processes of climatic nature is formulated. An earlier unknown strong earthquake of 1532 has been recognized; its traces are dated by the radiocarbon method. Based on the new data and calibration of earlier radiocarbon dates, the recurrence period of strong earthquakes in the southeastern Altai is refined.

The Yenisei River is the largest contributor of freshwater and energy fluxes among all rivers draining to the Arctic Ocean. Modeling long-term variability of Eurasian runoff to the Arctic Ocean is complicated by the considerable variability of river discharge in time and space, and the monitoring constraints imposed by a sparse gauged-flow network and paucity of satellite data. We quantify tree growth response to river discharge at the upper reaches of the Yenisei River in Tuva, South Siberia. Two regression models built from eight tree-ring width chronologies of Larix sibirica are applied to reconstruct winter (Nov–Apr) discharge for the period 1784-1997 (214 years), and annual (Oct–Sept) discharge for the period 1701–2000 (300 years). The Nov–Apr model explains 52% of the discharge variance whereas Oct–Sept explains 26% for the calibration intervals 1927–1997 and 1927-2000, respectively. This new hydrological archive doubles the length of the instrumental discharge record at the Kyzyl gauge and resets the temporal background of discharge variability back to 1784. The reconstruction finds a remarkable 80% upsurge in winter flow over the last 25 years, which is unprecedented in the last 214 years. In contrast, annual discharge fluctuated normally for this system, with only a 7% increase over the last 25 years. Water balance modeling with CRU data manifests a significant discrepancy between decadal variability of the gauged flow and climate data after 1960. We discuss the impact on the baseflow rate change of both the accelerating permafrost warming in the discontinuous zone of South Siberia and widespread forest fires. The winter discharge accounts for only one-third of the annual flow, yet the persistent 25-year upsurge is alarming. This trend is likely caused by Arctic Amplification, which can be further magnified by increased winter flow delivering significantly more freshwater to the Kara Sea during the cold season.

Significant air temperature and precipitation changes have occurred since the 2000s in vulnerable Siberian subarctic regions and urged updates of available chronologies towards the third millennium. It is important to better understand recent climatic changes compared to the past decades, centuries and even millennia. In this study, we present the first annually resolved triple tree-ring isotope dataset (δ13C, δ18O and δ2H) for the eastern part of the Taimyr Peninsula (TAY) and northeastern Yakutia (YAK) from 1900 to 2021. We found that the novel and largely unexplored δ2H of larch tree-ring cellulose was linked significantly with δ18O for the YAK site, which was affected by averaged April–June air temperatures and evaporation. Simulated by the Land Surface Processes and Exchanges (LPX-Bern 1.0) model, the water fraction per year for soil depths at 0–20 and 20–30 cm was significantly linked with the new eco-hydrological tree-ring δ2H data. Our results suggest increasing evapotranspiration and response of trees’ water relation to rising thaw water uptake from lower (20–30 cm) soil depth. A positive effect of July air temperature on tree-ring δ18O and a negative impact of July precipitation were found, indicating dry conditions. The δ13C in larch tree-ring cellulose for both sites showed negative correlations with July precipitation and relative humidity, confirming dry environmental conditions towards the third millennium.