A new 621-year Transcarpathian oak tree-ring chronology (Eastern Europe)

Abstract

Annually resolved and absolutely dated multi-century to multi-millennium tree-ring width (TRW) chronologies are essential for the precise dating of wooden artefacts and for climate reconstruction or dendro-paleoclimate studies. Although Transcarpathian basin region is largely forested and rich in historic buildings, a long and well-replicated oak TRW chronology has so far been lacking. This paper describes how we developed a new composite chronology, determined the number of sapwood rings and assessed positive and negative pointer years in relation to weather and climate extremes. We took 429 oak TRW measurements of 247 samples from living trees and 182 from historical buildings, gathered within Transcarpathian basin. The new Transcarpathian TRW chronology spans the period from 1400 to 2020 CE. The number of sapwood rings ranged from 6 to 23 within 95 % confidence limits. Our results revealed a total of 38 negative and 41 positive pointer years. While CRU gridded meteorological data indicated significant correlations only for positive extremes and high June–July precipitation, documentary data confirmed the importance of wet summers for positive and dry summers for negative pointer years. The new Transcarpathian oak TRW chronology shows a strong growth coherence and will allow historical and archaeological wood artefacts in the eastern Pannonian Plain to be dated. In addition, the use of the chronology for past climate reconstruction is conditioned by improved replication at the transition from recent and relict samples together with its extension further back.