A 500-year multi-proxy drought reconstruction for the Czech Lands
- 1Department of Geography, Masaryk University, Brno, Czech Republic
- 2Global Change Research Institute, Czech Academy of Sciences, Brno, Czech Republic
- 3Department of Agrosystems and Bioclimatology, Mendel University, Brno, Czech Republic
- 4Department of Wood Science, Mendel University, Brno, Czech Republic
- 5Doksany Observatory, Czech Hydrometeorological Institute, Doksany, Czech Republic
- 6Moravian Dendro-Labor, Brno, Czech Republic
- 7Department of Geography, University of Cambridge,UK
- 8Swiss Federal Research Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape WSL, Birmensdorf, Switzerland
- 1Department of Geography, Masaryk University, Brno, Czech Republic
- 2Global Change Research Institute, Czech Academy of Sciences, Brno, Czech Republic
- 3Department of Agrosystems and Bioclimatology, Mendel University, Brno, Czech Republic
- 4Department of Wood Science, Mendel University, Brno, Czech Republic
- 5Doksany Observatory, Czech Hydrometeorological Institute, Doksany, Czech Republic
- 6Moravian Dendro-Labor, Brno, Czech Republic
- 7Department of Geography, University of Cambridge,UK
- 8Swiss Federal Research Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape WSL, Birmensdorf, Switzerland
Abstract. Any proxy archive related to climate has inherent advantages and disadvantages. What have become known as the multi-proxy approaches
therefore constitute the cutting edge of paleoclimatology, as they are capable of providing more complete pictures of past climatic changes. This contribution combines tree-ring width chronologies, grape harvest dates and documentary-based precipitation indices from the territory of the Czech Republic to reconstruct inter-annual to multi-decadal drought variability, as expressed by Z-index, back to AD 1501. Using Principle Component Analysis and simple linear regression, the multi-proxy record explains 70 % of April–July drought variability between 1805 and 1854. It is demonstrated that the relatively short calibration period of early instrumental measurements, from 1805 to 1854, does not influence the quality of this reconstruction, and that the regression approach does not underestimate drought extremes. While reflecting a considerable amount of inter-annual spring-summer drought variability, the new Z-index reconstruction does not capture any long-term trends beyond the multi-decadal domain. The driest (1616) and the wettest (1713) years match previously published hydroclimate reconstructions from the same region, whereas the driest and wettest 30-year periods occurred in 1998–2017 and 1890–1919 respectively. Thus central Europe has recently experienced the most severe decadal-scale late spring–early summer drought of the past 500 years. The new multi-proxy drought reconstruction demonstrated progress beyond previous single-proxy attempts at establishing the strength of hydroclimate signal.
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Preprint
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Petr Dobrovolný et al.
Interactive discussion


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RC1: 'Review of: A 500-year multi-proxy drought reconstruction for the Czech lands', Danny McCarroll, 29 Jan 2019
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RC2: 'Review of Dobrovolny et al.', Anonymous Referee #2, 06 Feb 2019
Interactive discussion


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RC1: 'Review of: A 500-year multi-proxy drought reconstruction for the Czech lands', Danny McCarroll, 29 Jan 2019
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RC2: 'Review of Dobrovolny et al.', Anonymous Referee #2, 06 Feb 2019
Petr Dobrovolný et al.
Petr Dobrovolný et al.
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Cited
3 citations as recorded by crossref.
- Reconstructions of droughts in Germany since 1500 – combining hermeneutic information and instrumental records in historical and modern perspectives R. Glaser & M. Kahle 10.5194/cp-16-1207-2020
- Droughts in Bern and Rouen from the 14th to the beginning of the 18th century derived from documentary evidence C. Camenisch & M. Salvisberg 10.5194/cp-16-2173-2020
- Documentary data and the study of past droughts: a global state of the art R. Brázdil et al. 10.5194/cp-14-1915-2018