Climatology Group
Mission: We study high-resolution climate variability through the analysis of tree-rings and other palaeoclimate archives at regional to global scales. Instrumental climate data are evaluated and used for the calibration of these archives to reconstruct climate over the past couple hundred to thousand years. We teach introductory and methodological courses on climatology with emphasis on spatial patterns and long-term changes of climate and ecological variability.
Recent paper: Climate-change-driven growth decline of European beech forests
Past changes in European beech forest growth have been quantified by analyzing more than 780,000 tree ring measurements on 5,800 trees at 324 sites across Europe. Future growth of the species has been modeled under two different climate change scenarios (i.e. CMIP6 SSP1-2.6 and SSP5-8.5). The validated models indicate growth declines across large region of the distribution in recent decades, and project severe future growth declines ranging from −20% to more than −50% by 2090, depending on the region and climate change scenario.
Details can be found here: https://www.nature.com/articles/s42003-022-03107-3