ZLV Online

Abstract

In the paper we present findings on benefits of Juniperus communis annual growth rings from the Low Arctic, Greenland. To our knowledge, this is the most robust study with respect to depth of sample. Annual rings of Juniperus communis proved to be good Arctic proxy archive in case the quality of the dataset does not allow to investigate the sufficient amount of samples for the cell parameters measurements. Reasons for such setting can be partial decay of plant tissues, slope mass movements, little amount of plants in population, less experienced operator in wood anatomical cross sectioning, or combination of those. From all tested climate variables, only mean summer temperature showed strong and significant positive relationship to mean annual ring increments. We reconstructed development of mean summer temperatures and linked it with the trends from other archives (ice cores, census of local population). The end of Little Ice Age is visible in our reconstruction.