Other Earth Sciences Commons^™

Tree-Ring Isotopes Adjacent To Lake Superior Reveal Cold Winter Anomalies For The Great Lakes Region Of North America, Steven L. Voelker, Simon S.-Y Wang, Todd E. Dawson, John S. Roden, Christopher J. Still, Fred J. Longstaffe, Avner Ayalon

Earth Sciences Publications

Tree-ring carbon isotope discrimination (Δ¹³C) and oxygen isotopes (δ¹⁸O) collected from white pine (Pinus strobus) trees adjacent to Lake Superior show potential to produce the first winter-specific paleoclimate reconstruction with inter-annual resolution for this region. Isotopic signatures from 1976 to 2015 were strongly linked to antecedent winter minimum temperatures (T_min), Lake Superior peak ice cover, and regional to continental-scale atmospheric winter pressure variability including the North American Dipole. The immense thermal inertia of Lake Superior underlies the unique connection between winter conditions and tree-ring Δ¹³C and δ¹⁸O …