ИСТИНА

Tree-ring records play an important role in the past. High-latitude regions of the Northern hemisphere are of greatest interest for assessing natural and anthropogenic variations of climate change on account of the highest sensitivity of the polar ecosystems to climatic changes. Pine treering chronologies collected at site Loparskaya (68.63N, 33.25E) include the oldest (1455-2005) living pine tree found up to date at Kola Peninsula. Data analysis permitted to get some conclusions on the past climate variations and to demonstrate the connection of global and regional climatic variations at the European North. It was obtained a good agreement between the long-term climatic changes in Europe and at Kola Peninsula. Moreover, it was shown that the past climatic variations at Kola Peninsula were strongly connected to solar variability and volcanic activity. Namely, it is clearly seen that the decreases in tree-ring growth from about 1560 to 1680 coincide to the Little Ice Age and Maunder minimum of solar activity. As well one can see the decrease of temperature in 1780 - 1830 AD coinciding to combine action of Dalton minimum of solar activity (1801-1816 AD) and Laki (1783 AD) and Tambora (1815 AD) volcanic eruptions. It is interesting that in the period of suggested global warming since the 20th century the Kola Peninsula tree-ring chronologies as well demonstrate the strong connection of temperature changes to natural factor impacts (cooling after 1900, warming around 1940 and some cooling after 1970). These chronologies do not indicate any great warming at the end of the 20th century. The results give us useful information on the regional climatic variations in the area influenced by the Gulf Stream and Arctic Ocean and located in the vicinity of the very important Shtokman field.