Interannual to century scale climate variability in the European Alps

Wanner, Heinz; Holzhauser, Hanspeter; Pfister, Christian; Zumbühl, Heinz J.

doi:10.3112/erdkunde.2000.01.05

Cited by 67 publications

(49 citation statements)

References 19 publications

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“…A trend to cooler climatic conditions similar to that in the Greenland ice-core record during the last two millennia is documented by more frequent and more marked advances of the Aletsch Glacier, the largest Alpine glacier (Wanner et al, 2000). For example, two Aletsch Glacier advances at around 1150 and 1350 AD are in agreement with the GRIP record and a new treering series (Esper et al, 2002) suggesting relatively cool conditions between 1100 and 1400 AD.…”

Section: Northern Hemisphere and European Climate Proxiessupporting

confidence: 72%

“…Nevertheless, cultivation of Triticum and Hordeum was successful, considering that pollen of Cerealia reached peak values of more than 5% in deposits at these elevations (Zoller and Erny-Rodman, 1994). In the Alps most Holocene cool periods were characterised by higher amounts of precipitation and were therefore comparable to the LIA period (Wanner et al, 2000;Tinner and Ammann, 2001). Thus it seems more plausible that prolonged humid conditions during the growing season favoured parasite attacks and provoked substantial harvest losses.…”

Section: Effects Of Climate Change On Prehistoric Agriculture and Popmentioning

confidence: 90%

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Climatic change and contemporaneous land-use phases north and south of the Alps 2300 BC to 800 AD

Tinner

Lotter

Ammann

et al. 2003

Quaternary Science Reviews

186

162

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Fluctuations in the D 14 C curve and subsequent gaps of archaeological findings at 800-650 and 400-100 BC in western and central Europe may indicate major climate-driven land-abandonment phases. To address this hypothesis radiocarbon-dated sediments from four lakes in Switzerland were studied palynologically. Pollen analysis indicates contemporaneous phases of forest clearances and of intensified land-use at 1450-1250 BC, 650-450 BC, 50 BC-100 AD and around 700 AD. These land-use expansions coincided with periods of warm climate as recorded by the Alpine dendroclimatic and Greenland oxygen isotope records. Our results suggest that harvest yields would have increased synchronously over wide areas of central and southern Europe during periods of warm and dry climate. Combined interpretation of palaeoecological and archaeological findings suggests that higher food production led to increased human populations. Positive long-term trends in pollen values of Cerealia and Plantago lanceolata indicate that technical innovations during the Bronze and Iron Age (e.g. metal ploughs, scythes, hay production, fertilising methods) gradually increased agricultural productivity. The successful adoption of yield-increasing advances cannot be explained by climatic determinism alone. Combined with archaeological evidence, our results suggest that despite considerable cycles of spatial and demographic reorganisation (repeated land abandonments and expansions, as well as large-scale migrations and population decreases), human societies were able to shift to lower subsistence levels without dramatic ruptures in material culture. However, our data imply that human societies were not able to compensate rapidly for harvest failures when climate deteriorated. Agriculture in marginal areas was abandoned, and spontaneous reforestations took place on abandoned land south and north of the Alps. Only when the climate changed again to drier and warmer conditions did a new wide-spread phase of forest clearances and field extensions occur, allowing the reoccupation of previously abandoned areas. Spatial distribution of cereal cultivation and growth requirements of Cerealia species suggest that increases in precipitation were far more decisive in driving crop failures over central and southern Europe than temperature decreases. r

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Section: Northern Hemisphere and European Climate Proxiessupporting

confidence: 72%

Section: Effects Of Climate Change On Prehistoric Agriculture and Popmentioning

confidence: 90%

Climatic change and contemporaneous land-use phases north and south of the Alps 2300 BC to 800 AD

Tinner

Lotter

Ammann

et al. 2003

Quaternary Science Reviews

186

162

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…A comparison with the central-England December-March temperature record (11-yr running mean) (Figure 8,lower panel) shows that the two records are in general anticorrelated, i.e., that Unterer Grindelwaldgletscher was in an advanced position when the winter temperatures over England were low, and vice versa, which is in accordance with the modern NAO north-south dipole pattern in Europe (Reichert et al, 2001;Six et al, 2001). A winter-precipitation index for the northern Swiss Alpine foreland between ad 1550 and 1995 (P ster, 1995;Wanner et al, 2000) shows that the early eighteenth century period of signi cant glacier growth in Scandinavia was characterized by a decreasing winter-precipitation trend. Climatic variability over the last 600 years in the northwest- (Manley, 1974;Parker et al, 1992; with later updates by the Hadley Centre).…”

Section: Figuresupporting

confidence: 56%

The ‘Little Ice Age’ – only temperature?

2003

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Abstract:Understanding the climate of the last few centuries, including the 'Little Ice Age', may help us better understand modern-day natural climate variability and make climate predictions. The conventional view of the climate development during the last millennium has been that it followed the simple sequence of a 'Mediaeval Warm Period', a cool 'Little Ice Age' followed by warming in the later part of the nineteenth century and during the twentieth century. This view was mainly based on evidence from western Europe and the North Atlantic region. Recent research has, however, challenged this rather simple sequence of climate development in the recent past. Data presented here indicate that the rapid glacier advance in the early eighteenth century in southern Norway was mainly due to increased winter precipitation: mild, wet winters due to prevailing 'positive North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) weather mode' in the rst half of the eighteenth century; and not only lower summer temperatures. A comparison of recent mass-balance records and 'Little Ice Age' glacier uctuations in southern Norway and the European Alps suggests that the asynchronous 'Little Ice Age' maxima in the two regions may be attributed to multidecadal trends in the north-south dipole NAO pattern.

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“…Stine (1998), based on his drought studies from the Western United States, proposed another term for the overall period of the MWP as the "Medieval Climatic Anomaly" (MCA), which removes the emphasis on the temperature. Wanner et al (2000) have coined the term of "Little Ice Age Type Events" (LIATES) for the phases of glacier advance. Consequently, the "Medieval Warm Period" can be defined as the period between the glacial advances of the LIA and a preceding phase of glacial expansion late in the penultimate millennium (see Figure 5) (Grove and Switsur, 1994).…”

Section: Defining the Medieval Warm Period And The Little Ice Agementioning

confidence: 99%

Historical Climatology In Europe – The State Of The Art

et al. 2005

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Abstract. This paper discusses the state of European research in historical climatology. This field of science and an overview of its development are described in detail. Special attention is given to the documentary evidence used for data sources, including its drawbacks and advantages. Further, methods and significant results of historical-climatological research, mainly achieved since 1990, are presented. The main focus concentrates on data, methods, definitions of the "Medieval Warm Period" and the "Little Ice Age", synoptic interpretation of past climates, climatic anomalies and natural disasters, and the vulnerability of economies and societies to climate as well as images and social representations of past weather and climate. The potential of historical climatology for climate modelling research is discussed briefly. Research perspectives in historical climatology are formulated with reference to data, methods, interdisciplinarity and impacts.

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Interannual to century scale climate variability in the European Alps

Cited by 67 publications

References 19 publications

Climatic change and contemporaneous land-use phases north and south of the Alps 2300 BC to 800 AD

Climatic change and contemporaneous land-use phases north and south of the Alps 2300 BC to 800 AD

The ‘Little Ice Age’ – only temperature?

Historical Climatology In Europe – The State Of The Art

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