Cooling and societal change during the Late Antique Little Ice Age from 536 to around 660 AD

Описание

Тип публикации: статья из журнала

Год издания: 2016

Идентификатор DOI: 10.1038/NGEO2652

Ключевые слова: civilization, climate change, cooling, environmental factor, geochronology, Little Ice Age, migration, Northern Hemisphere, tree ring, volcanic eruption, Alps, Altay [Russian Federation], Arabian Peninsula, Asia, China, Romania, Russian Federation

Аннотация: Climatic changes during the first half of the Common Era have been suggested to play a role in societal reorganizations in Europe(1,2) and Asia(3,4). In particular, the sixth century coincides with rising and falling civilizations(1-6), pandemics(7,8), human migration and political turmoil(8-13). Our understanding of the magnitude Показать полностьюand spatial extent as well as the possible causes and concurrences of climate change during this period is, however, still limited. Here we use tree-ring chronologies from the Russian Altai and European Alps to reconstruct summer temperatures over the past two millennia. We find an unprecedented, long-lasting and spatially synchronized cooling following a cluster of large volcanic eruptions in 536, 540 and 547 AD (ref. 14), which was probably sustained by ocean and sea-ice feedbacks(15,16), as well as a solar minimum(17). We thus identify the interval from 536 to about 660 AD as the Late Antique Little Ice Age. Spanning most of the Northern Hemisphere, we suggest that this cold phase be considered as an additional environmental factor contributing to the establishment of the Justinian plague(7,8), transformation of the eastern Roman Empire and collapse of the Sasanian Empire(1,2,5), movements out of the Asian steppe and Arabian Peninsula(8,11,12), spread of Slavic-speaking peoples(9,10) and political upheavals in China(13).

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Издание

Журнал: NATURE GEOSCIENCE

Выпуск журнала: Vol. 9, Is. 3

Номера страниц: 231-163

ISSN журнала: 17520894

Место издания: NEW YORK

Издатель: NATURE PUBLISHING GROUP

Персоны

  • Buntgen U. (Global Change Research Centre AS CR)
  • Krusic P.J. (Navarino Environmental Observatory)
  • Esper J. (Department of Geography,Johannes Gutenberg University)
  • Kaplan J.O. (University of Lausanne,Institute of Earth Surface Dynamics)
  • De Vaan M.A.C. (Department of Linguistics and Information Sciences,University of Lausanne)
  • Luterbacher J. (Department of Geography,Justus Liebig University)
  • Wacker L. (Laboratory for Ion Beam Physics,ETHZ)
  • Tegel W. (Department of Forest Growth,Albert-Ludwigs University)
  • Sigl M. (Paul Scherrer Institute PSI)
  • Myglan V.S. (Siberian Federal University)
  • Kirdyanov A.V. (VN Sukachev Institute of Forest SB RAS)
  • Ljungqvist F.C. (Bolin Centre for Climate Research,Stockholm University)
  • McCormick M. (Initiative for the Science of the Human Past (SoHP),Harvard University)
  • Di Cosmo N. (Institute for Advanced Study,School of Historical Studies)
  • Jungclaus J. (Max Planck Institute for Meteorology)
  • Wagner S. (Institute for Coastal Research,Helmholtz-Zentrum Geesthacht)