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Communications Earth and EnvironmentVolume 4, Issue 1, December 2023, Article number 232

Anthropogenic warming has exacerbated droughts in southern Europe since the 1850s(Article)(Open Access)

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  • aKey Laboratory of Cenozoic Geology and Environment, Institute of Geology and Geophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China
  • bCAS Center for Excellence in Life and Paleoenvironment, Beijing, China
  • cFaculty of Science, University of Novi Sad, Trg Dositeja Obradovića 3, Novi Sad, 21000, Serbia
  • dSerbian Academy of Sciences and Arts, Belgrade, Serbia
  • eCollaborative Innovation Center on Forecast and Evaluation of Meteorological Disasters/Key Laboratory of Meteorological Disaster, Ministry of Education/International Joint Research Laboratory on Climate and Environment Change, Nanjing University of Information Science & Technology (NUIST), Nanjing, China
  • fFaculty of Forestry, University of Banja Luka, Banja Luka, Republic of Srpska, Bosnia and Herzegovina

Abstract

Widespread and frequent droughts have affected most parts of Europe over recent years, but it remains unclear when this synchronous drying trend began and how it has been influenced by anthropogenic forcing. Here we reconstruct and explore the history of drought in southern Europe over the past 300 years using an annual record of tree-ring oxygen isotopes from a site in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The reconstruction suggests that the onset of the drying trend in southern Europe occurred around the 1850s, which is consistent with previous studies demonstrating the extensive and long-lasting drying across central and western European areas. The evidence from CMIP6 model and reanalysis data demonstrates that anthropogenic warming has enhanced the strength of land–atmosphere coupling and exacerbated the widespread drying trend since the 1850s. © 2023, The Author(s).

Indexed keywords

GEOBASE Subject Index:annual variationanthropogenic sourceCMIPdroughtoxygen isotopetree ringtrend analysis
Regional Index:Bosnia and Herzegovina

Funding details

Funding sponsor Funding number Acronym
IGGCAS-201905,JCTD-2021-05
National Natural Science Foundation of China41877457,41888101,42022059NSFC
Chinese Academy of SciencesXDB26020000CAS
National Key Research and Development Program of China2017YFE0112800NKRDPC

  • 1

    This study was supported by the National Key Research and Development Program (2017YFE0112800), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (41888101, 41877457, 42022059), the Strategic Priority Research Program of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, China (Grant No. XDB26020000), the Key Research Program of the Institute of Geology and Geophysics (CAS Grant IGGCAS-201905), and the CAS Youth Interdisciplinary Team (JCTD-2021-05).

  • ISSN: 26624435
  • Source Type: Journal
  • Original language: English
  • DOI: 10.1038/s43247-023-00907-1
  • Document Type: Article
  • Publisher: Nature Publishing Group

  Xu, C.; Key Laboratory of Cenozoic Geology and Environment, Institute of Geology and Geophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China;
© Copyright 2023 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.

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