OVERVIEW OF DENDROCLIMATOLOGICAL STUDIES IN THE BALKAN PENINSULA

Abstract

To develop climate models and improve the decision-base for future forestry and agronomy strategies, information on the frequency, intensity and duration of extreme events from the time before instrumentally measured meteorological data should be assessed. The science of acquiring this information is dendrochronology. It is used by various disciplines, such as archaeology and climatology, to date old wooden objects, compare individual climatic factors to tree-ring proxies on an annual scale or to reconstruct past climate. Dendrochronological investigations on the Balkan Peninsula have been made in several sites and species. Scientists have discovered a clear temperature signal on temperature sensitive sites, droughts as the most limiting growth factor in inner parts of the Balkan Peninsula and, on some sites, sunshine/moisture stress as the most influential factor for tree growth. Analysing years of extremely enhanced or reduced tree growth has revealed events such as instability of the climate signal in time, extreme droughts or wet summers, the influence of volcanic eruptions or past fire damage. Combining new results from the latest studies and extending chronologies further back in time, using wood from archaeological excavations, will improve the atlas of past droughts or extreme climatic events, in both spatial and temporal dimensions and will ease the creation of future climate adaptation policies.