Contrasting tree-ring data with fire record in a pine-dominated landscape in the Komi Republic (eastern European Russia): Recovering a common climate signal

Abstract

For the period 1420-1960 we contrasted fire events reconstructed at 14 sites distributed over a 50 km x 50 km area in the central part of the Komi Republic (European Russia) with a set of tree-ring width chronologies of Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris L.), developed for the same area. Our aim was to infer common climatic information contained in tree-ring variables and independently dated fire events with the help of a superposed epoch analysis. The strongest weather-growth link was shown for the latewood width, which was positively correlated with the temperature in April-May and July-August of the current growth season and with previous year precipitation in July-August. Earlywood width was positively affected by previous year precipitation in May and November. The relationship between yearly ring variables and multiple-site fire events was dependent on the seasonal timing of fire events as recorded in the scars. In years with early-season fires (which made up 37% of all fires dated with seasonal resolution) total ring width was significantly narrower. In years with late-season fires (63%) total ring width, earlywood, and latewood width were significantly wider. Years with late-season fires tended to be associated with local highs of the latewood width chronologies over 1400-1960, which implied a link between decadal-scale climate variation and fire regime of the area.