Abstract
IN the current debate on the magnitude of modern-day climate change, there is a growing appreciation of the importance of long, high-resolution proxies of past climate1–3. Such records provide an indication of natural (pre-anthropogenic) climate variability, either singly at specific geographical locations or in combination on continental and perhaps even hemispheric scales4. There are, however, relatively few records that are well dated, of high resolution and of verifiable fidelity in terms of climate response, and conspicuously few that extend over a thousand years or more5. Here we report a tree-ring-based reconstruction of mean summer temperatures over the northern Urals since AD 914. This record shows that the mean temperature of the twentieth century (1901–90) is higher than during any similar period since AD 914.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Eddy, J. A. Global IGBP Change Report No. 19 (International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme, Stockholm, 1992).
Bradley, R. S. (ed.) Global Changes of the Past (University Corporation for Atmospheric Res./Office of Interdisciplinary Earth Studies, Boulder, 1991).
Bradley, R. S. & Jones, P. D. (eds) Climate Since A.D. 1500 (Routledge, London, 1992).
Bradley, R. S. & Jones, P. D. The Holocene 3, 367–376 (1993).
Hughes, M. K. & Diaz, H. F. Clim. Change 26, 109–142 (1994).
Shiyatov, S. G. Dendrochronology in the Upper Tree Line in the Urals (Nauka, Moscow, 1986) (in Russian).
Graybill, D. A. & Shiyatov, S. G. in Climate Since A.D. 1500 (eds Bradley, R. S. & Jones, P. D.) 393–414 (Routledge, London, 1992).
Shiyatov, S. G. & Mazepa, V. S. in Methods of Dendrochronology Vol. 1 (eds Kairiukstis, L. A., Bednarz, Z. & Feliksik, E.) 87–96 (IIASA/Polish Acad. Sci.—Systems Res. Inst., Warsaw, 1987).
Cook, E. R., Briffa, K. R., Shiyatov, S. G. & Mazepa, V. S. in Methods of Dendrochronology (eds Cook, E. R. & Kairiukstis, L. A.) 104–123 (Kluwer/IIASA, Dordrecht, 1990).
Fritts, H. C. Tree Rings and Climate (Academic, London, 1976).
Schweingruber, F. H. Tree Rings: Basics and Applications of Dendrochronology (Reidel, Dordrecht, 1988).
Briffa, K. R. et al. Clim. Dyn. 7, 111–119 (1992).
Jacoby, G. C. & Cook, E. R. Arct. Alp. Res. 13, 409–418 (1981).
Briffa, K. R., Jones, P. D., Pilcher, J. R. & Hughes, M. K. Arct. Alp. Res. 20, 385–394 (1988).
Briffa, K. R. et al. Nature 346, 434–439 (1990).
Schweingruber, F. H., Briffa, K. R. & Nogler, P. Int. J. Biomet. 37, 151–169 (1993).
Jones, P. D. et al. J. Clim. appl. Met. 25, 161–179 (1986).
Jones, P. D. & Briffa, K. R. Int. J. Climatol. (in the press).
D'Arrigo, R. D. & Jacoby, G. C. Jr in Climate Since A.D. 1500 (eds. Bradley, R. S. & Jones, P. D.) 296–311 (Routledge, London, 1992).
Folland, C. K., Karl, T. R. & Vinnikov, K. Ya. in Climate Change: the IPCC Assessment (eds Houghton, J. T., Jenkins, G. J. & Ephraums, J. J.) 195–238 (WMO/UNEP, Cambridge Univ. Press, 1990).
Zwiers, F. W. & von Storch, H. J. Clim. 8, 336–351 (1995).
Cubasch, U. et al. Clim. Dyn. 8, 55–69 (1992).
Gates, W. L., Mitchell, J. F. B., Boer, G. J., Cubasch, U. & Meleshko, V. P. in Climate Change 1992: The Supplementary Report to the IPCC Scientific Assessment (eds Houghton, J. T., Callander, B. A. & Varney, S. K.) 97–134 (WMO/UNEP, Cambridge Univ. Press, 1992).
Santer, B. D. et al. Clim. Dyn. (in the press).
Delworth, T., Manabe, S. & Stouffer, R. J. J. Clim. 6, 1993–2011 (1993).
Stocker, T. F. Nature 367, 221–222 (1994).
Schlesinger, M. E. & Ramankutty, N. Nature 367, 723–726 (1994).
Briffa, K. R., Jones, P. D., Schweingruber, F. H., Karlén, W. & Shiyatov, S. G. in Climate Fluctuations and Forcing Mechanisms of the Last 2,000 Years (eds Jones, P. D., Bradley, R. S. & Jouzel, J.) (Springer, Berlin, in the press).
Cook, E. R. & Briffa, K. R. in Methods of Dendrochronology (eds Cook, E. R. & Kairiukstis, L. A.) 153–162 (Kluwer/IIASA, Dordrecht, 1990).
Cook, E. R., Briffa, K. R. & Jones, P. D. Int. J. Climatol. 14, 379–402 (1994).
Wigley, T. M. L., Briffa, K. R. & Jones, P. D. J. Clim. appl. Met. 23, 201–213 (1984).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Briffa, K., Jones, P., Schweingruber, F. et al. Unusual twentieth-century summer warmth in a 1,000-year temperature record from Siberia. Nature 376, 156–159 (1995). https://doi.org/10.1038/376156a0
Received:
Accepted:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/376156a0
- Springer Nature Limited
This article is cited by
-
Effects of climate on the tree ring density and weight of Betula ermanii in a cool temperate forest in central Japan
Trees (2022)
-
The European Russia Drought Atlas (1400–2016 CE)
Climate Dynamics (2020)
-
Climatic change in southern Kazakhstan since 1850 C.E. inferred from tree rings
International Journal of Biometeorology (2020)
-
Spatio-statistical analysis of temperature fluctuation using Mann–Kendall and Sen’s slope approach
Climate Dynamics (2017)
-
Precipitation reconstruction for the northwestern Chinese Altay since 1760 indicates the drought signals of the northern part of inner Asia
International Journal of Biometeorology (2016)