Volcano-induced regime shifts in millennial tree-ring chronologies from northeastern North America

The cooling effect on the Earth's climate system of sulfate aerosols injected into the stratosphere by large volcanic eruptions remains a topic of debate. While some simulation and field data show that these effects are short-term (less than about 10 years), other evidence suggests that large a...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
Main Authors: Gennaretti, Fabio, Arseneault, Dominique, Nicault, Antoine, Perreault, Luc, Bégin, Yves
Format: Text
Language:English
Published: National Academy of Sciences 2014
Subjects:
Online Access:http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4104845
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24982132
https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1324220111
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Summary:The cooling effect on the Earth's climate system of sulfate aerosols injected into the stratosphere by large volcanic eruptions remains a topic of debate. While some simulation and field data show that these effects are short-term (less than about 10 years), other evidence suggests that large and successive eruptions can lead to the onset of cooling episodes that can persist over several decades when sustained by consequent sea ice/ocean feedbacks. Here, we present a new network of millennial tree-ring chronologies suitable for temperature reconstructions from northeastern North America where no similar records are available, and we show that during the last millennium, persistent shifts toward lower average temperatures in this region coincide with series of large eruptions.