Tree-ring isotopes adjacent to Lake Superior reveal cold winter anomalies for the Great Lakes region of North America

Steven L Voelker; S -Y Simon Wang; Todd E Dawson; John S Roden; Christopher J Still; Fred J Longstaffe; Avner Ayalon

doi:10.1038/s41598-019-40907-w

Tree-ring isotopes adjacent to Lake Superior reveal cold winter anomalies for the Great Lakes region of North America

Sci Rep. 2019 Mar 13;9(1):4412. doi: 10.1038/s41598-019-40907-w.

Authors

Steven L Voelker^{1

2}, S -Y Simon Wang^{3

4}, Todd E Dawson⁵, John S Roden⁶, Christopher J Still⁷, Fred J Longstaffe⁸, Avner Ayalon⁹

Affiliations

¹ Department of Plants, Soils and Climate, Utah State University, Logan, UT, USA. dr.s.voelker@gmail.com.
² Ecology Center, Utah State University, Logan, UT, USA. dr.s.voelker@gmail.com.
³ Department of Plants, Soils and Climate, Utah State University, Logan, UT, USA.
⁴ Ecology Center, Utah State University, Logan, UT, USA.
⁵ Department of Integrative Biology, University of California - Berkeley, Berkeley, CA, USA.
⁶ Department of Biology, Southern Oregon University, Ashland, OR, USA.
⁷ Department of Forest Ecosystems and Society, Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR, USA.
⁸ Department of Earth Sciences, Western University, London, Ontario, Canada.
⁹ Geological Survey of Israel, Jerusalem, Israel.

Abstract

Tree-ring carbon isotope discrimination (Δ¹³C) and oxygen isotopes (δ¹⁸O) collected from white pine (Pinus strobus) trees adjacent to Lake Superior show potential to produce the first winter-specific paleoclimate reconstruction with inter-annual resolution for this region. Isotopic signatures from 1976 to 2015 were strongly linked to antecedent winter minimum temperatures (T_min), Lake Superior peak ice cover, and regional to continental-scale atmospheric winter pressure variability including the North American Dipole. The immense thermal inertia of Lake Superior underlies the unique connection between winter conditions and tree-ring Δ¹³C and δ¹⁸O signals from the following growing season in trees located near the lake. By combining these signals, we demonstrate feasibility to reconstruct variability in T_min, ice cover, and continental-scale atmospheric circulation patterns (r ≥ 0.65, P < 0.001).

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't