从木材解剖学视角看公元6世纪中期晚古小冰期的开始时间

Global wood anatomical perspective on the onset of the Late Antique Little Ice Age (LALIA) in the mid-6th century CE

公元536~540年间的大规模火山喷发使得晚古小冰期成为过去两千年最为寒冷的时期.然而,受限于现有气候代用资料的时间分辨率和空间覆盖度,晚古小冰期的开始时间和空间范围仍存有争议.本文分析了全球23个森林样点、20个树种的106个树轮样本资料,从细胞尺度揭示了公元530~550年间北半球发生的短暂夏季冷却现象.经过交叉定年和染色处理后,在北半球的树轮样品中共识别出89个蓝轮(缺失细胞壁木质化过程)、9个霜轮(细胞分裂受阻)和93个浅轮(细胞壁增厚减弱).研究结果表明,公元536年7月中旬至8月初期间整个北美和欧亚大陆均发生了最剧烈的温度下降,而更多的区域性“冷夏”出现于公元532年、540~543年和548年.然而,本研究在南半球的树轮资料中并未发现异常的解剖结构,其原因可能与南半球的海洋热惯性减缓了火山降温效应有关,也或与南半球其时正值非生长季有关.相较于传统的树轮年代学方法,本研究的木材解剖学的方法能为地球系统模式提供更为精细的参考标准,有望服务于气候与人类历史交叉学科研究,同时对“全球气候平均”概念的使用提出质疑.

Linked to major volcanic eruptions around 536 and 540 CE, the onset of the Late Antique Little Ice Age has been described as the coldest period of the past two millennia. The exact timing and spatial extent of this exceptional cold phase are, however, still under debate because of the limited resolution and geographical distribution of the available proxy archives. Here, we use 106 wood anatomical thin sections from 23forest sites and 20 tree species in both hemispheres to search for cell-level fingerprints of ephemeral summer cooling between 530 and 550 CE. After cross-dating and double-staining, we identified 89Blue Rings(lack of cell wall lignification), nine Frost Rings(cell deformation and collapse), and 93Light Rings(reduced cell wall thickening) in the Northern Hemisphere. Our network reveals evidence for the strongest temperature depression between mid-July and early-August 536 CE across North America and Eurasia, whereas more localised cold spells occurred in the summers of 532, 540–43, and548 CE. The lack of anatomical signatures in the austral trees suggests limited incursion of stratospheric volcanic aerosol into the Southern Hemisphere extra-tropics, that any forcing was mitigated by atmosphere-ocean dynamical responses and/or concentrated outside the growing season, or a combination of factors. Our findings demonstrate the advantage of wood anatomical investigations over traditional dendrochronological measurements, provide a benchmark for Earth system models, support cross-disciplinary studies into the entanglements of climate and history, and question the relevance of global climate averages.