Location: Plenarsaal at the ZiF (Center for Interdisciplinary Research), Bielefeld, Germany

Date: 11 May 2022, 19:00

In the context of the cooperation group VOLCANOES, CLIMATE AND HISTORY

Using a citizen science database with records going back to the mid-18th century, a research team led by the University of Cambridge has found that the effects of climate change are causing plants in the UK to flower one month earlier under recent global warming. This could have profound consequences for wildlife, agriculture and gardeners.

Interview (in German) published in Welt am Sonntag

The Laacher See eruption (LSE) in Germany ranks among Europe’s largest volcanic events of the Upper Pleistocene. Here we present dendrochronological and radiocarbon measurements of subfossil trees that were buried by pyroclastic deposits that firmly date the LSE to 13,006 ± 9 calibrated years before present (BP; taken as AD 1950), which is more than a century earlier than previously accepted.

Tree-ring chronologies underpin the majority of annually-resolved reconstructions of Common Era climate. However, they are derived using different datasets and techniques, the ramifications of which have hitherto been little explored.

After a successful conquest of large parts of Syria in 1258 and 1259 CE, the Mongol army lost the battle of 'Ayn Jālūt against Mamluks on September 3, 1260 CE. Despite decades of research, scholars have not yet reached consensus over the causes of the Mongol reverse. Here, we revisit previous arguments in light of climate and environmental changes in the aftermath of one the largest volcanic forcings in the past 2500 years, the Samalas eruption ~1257 CE.

Considering the importance and complexity of natural (e.g., volcanic eruptions and wildfires) and anthropogenic (e.g., mining, oil and shipping industries) aerosol emissions to Arctic warming is particularly timely given the recent temperature extremes recorded at high-northern latitudes.

European oak trees reconstruct summer climate over 2,110 years. Drought conditions since 2015 suddenly intensified, beyond anything in the past two thousand years.

Article by Jane Owen published in Financial Times, 13 March 2021, featuring truffle research. It is also a wonderful tribute to Lucy (2005-2020).

Volcanoes have played a larger role in natural temperature variability than previously thought, and their climatic effects may have contributed to past societal and economic change.

The largest-ever study of tree rings from Norilsk in the Russian Arctic has shown that the direct and indirect effects of industrial pollution in the region are far worse than previously thought.

Documentary film by the University of Cambridge on truffle research. Lucy (2005-2020) on the hunt for truffles in the Botanic Garden Cambridge.

LALIA "Late Antique Little Ice Age" in connection with the Justinian plague pandemic and the decline of the eastern Roman Empire.