Europe’s atmosphere has become significantly drier in recent decades due to higher greenhouse gas emissions compared to pre-industrial times. This is evident from an international study of tree ring data dating back to the year 1600.
Given drought events in many regions of Europe in recent years, this is worrying, Kerstin Treydte, lead author of the study and researcher at the Federal Research Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape (WSL), said in a statement. Because dry air would remove more water from the soil and plants. The result: plants deteriorate and some even die.
Researchers warn: “Yields will decline”
This is also of great importance for agriculture. “More irrigation will be needed and yields will decrease,” says Treydte. The researchers used the so-called vapor pressure deficit (VPD) as a measure of air dryness. It describes the difference between the maximum water content that the air can have at a certain temperature and the actual water content of the air.
In the annual rings of trees, which are up to more than 400 years old, the VPD is reflected in the so-called oxygen isotopes. Isotopes are variations of atoms with different weights. The researchers can see how high the VPD was over a year from the composition of the oxygen isotopes in the annual rings.
According to the research, this was most evident in the Central European lowlands, in the Alps and in the Pyrenees. The highest VPD values were therefore reached in the drought years 2003, 2015 and 2018. Using additional model simulations, the authors were also able to demonstrate that the current values could not have been achieved without greenhouse gas emissions.
Source: Krone
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