A manuscript about tritium as a hydrological tracer in Mediterranean precipitation events is published in Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics:
Juhlke, T.R., Sültenfuß, J., Trachte, K., Huneau, F., Garel, E., Santoni, S., Barth, J.A.C., van Geldern, R. (2020): Tritium as a hydrological tracer in Mediterranean precipitation events. Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics, 20:3555-3568. doi: 10.5194/acp-20-3555-2020
The time of intensive field work came to an end in November 2019. Only one climate stations and the dendrometers remained in the field. Within the last 2,5 years a huge amount of hydrological and biological samples were taken in biweekly to monthly intervals at 14 study sites in 58 field campaigns. These data allow interesting insights into how the trees react to different climatic conditions in summer, since 2017 was particularly dry and 2018 particularly humid.
The project was presented at the annual meeting of the Arbeitskreis Klima in Jesteburg/Germany with two contributions: an oral presentation about the the impact of two consecutive extreme years on water availability and the radial growth of Pinus pinaster and Pinus nigra, and a poster presentation about the development and formation of the planetary boundary layer under different weather types.
A manuscript about the intra-annual oxygen isotope pattern in tree-ring cellulose and its climatic significance is published in Annals of Forest Science:
Szymczak, S., Bräuning, A., Häusser, M., Garel, E., Huneau, F., Santoni, S. (2019): The relationship between climate and the intra-annual oxygen isotope patterns from pine trees: a case study along an elevation gradient on Corsica, France. Annals of Forest Science, 76:76. (https://doi.org/10.1007/s13595-019-0860-9)
The CorsicArchive project was represented at the International Symposium on Isotope Hydrology organized by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in Vienna, Austria. The poster presentation gave an overview of the project aims, field instrumentation and methods. Additionally, preliminary results of all working groups, including the published findings of Häusser et al. (2019), were presented to an interested, international audience.
The project was presented at the annual meeting of the Association for Tree-ring Research, TRACE 2019 (Tree rings in archaeology, climatology and ecology), in Caserta/Italy with two contributions: an oral presentation about the oxygen isotope variability from source to sink in the tree-ring archive and a poster presentation about the impact of two consecutive extreme years on the radial growth of Pinus pinaster and Pinus nigra.
The project was successfully presented at the University of Corsica in Corte.
An article about the presentation was published in the French national daily newspaper „Le Figaro“ (www.lefigaro.fr/sciences/lire-le-climat-dans-les-cernes-des-arbres-20190421).
The project will be presented to the public at the University of Corsica in Corte on Tuesday, 16th April 2019 at 2.00 pm (actu.universita.corsica/plugins/actu/actu-front.php). The meeting is open to all.
A manuscript about the growth behaviour of Pinus nigra and Pinus pinaster is published in Dendrochronologia:
Häusser, M., Szymczak, S., Garel, E., Santoni, S., Huneau, F., Bräuning, A. (2019): Growth variability of two native pine species on Corsica as a function of elevation. Dendrochronologia (54), 49-55. (doi.org/10.1016/j.dendro.2019.02.002)
New field equipment was deployed on several of the CorsicArchive field sites. A second automatic rain collector was set up near Col de Vizzavona right before Christmas 2017. Up until now it is producing equal amounts of samples and problems.
At the beginning of August 2018 a new soil suction probe was installed at our high elevation site near Capanelle ski resort. Although the rocky soil was difficult to penetrate, it could be installed at around 80 cm depth and produced a first sample two weeks afterwards. It will lead to a better understanding of soil water conditions at high elevations and complements the results from the already installed probes at our coastal sites.
The project was presented at the annual meeting of the association for tree-ring research, TRACE 2018 (Tree rings in archaeology, climatology and ecology), in Greifswald with two contributions: an oral presentation about the intra-annual oxygen isotope cycle of tree-ring cellulose from pine trees and a poster presentation about growth trajectories from the two studied pine species.
It is now one year ago that the permanent equipment was installed at the study sites. Samples were collected in biweekly intervals the whole year round. The extreme dry period 2017 (lasting from May to November, leading to a remarkable soil water deficit) was followed by an extreme wet winter with a considerable snow cover at the higher sites making the accessibility of the equipment challenging. A cold period at the end of February brought snowfall even at the coastal locations.
A new cryogenic vacuum extraction device was set up for the extraction of needle, branch and soil water. This device is mandatory for the subproject „Dendroisotopes“. After a test phase the first real tree samples were extracted leading to encouraging results concerning the reproducibility.
(Photography from Christof Utzmeir)
A field week for a group of master students from Erlangen was organised by Achim Bräuning and Sonja Szymczak in July. Dendroecological, botanical and pedological site surveys were conducted in beech and pine forests at the slopes of Monte Renoso. The investigations shall help to better understand the spatial distribution of different forest types and to determine weather the distribution is controlled by ecological parameters or fire frequency.
The project was presented at the annual meeting of Working Group Biogeography („Jahrestreffen des AK Biogeographie“) in Erlangen with two contributions. The poster „Kiefern auf Korsika. Ökologische Differenzierung entlang eines Höhengradienten“ from Martin Häusser, Sonja Szymczak and Achim Bräuning recieved the award for best poster.
„Ein Klimaarchiv auf Korsika“ - A press release about the project is published on the FAU-website:
Members of all subprojects travelled to Corsica and successfully installed most of the equipment for the permanent measurements: three climate stations, 10 precipitation collectors and 42 dendrometers.