title: Shrubs tracing sea surface temperature--Calluna vulgaris on the Faroe Islands.
abstract: The climate of Central and Northern Europe is highly influenced by the North Atlantic Ocean due to heat transfer from lower latitudes. Detailed knowledge about spatio-temporal variability of sea surface temperature (SST) in that region is thus of high interest for climate and environmental research. Because of the close relations between ocean and coastal climate and the climate sensitivity of plant growth, annual rings of woody plants in coastal regions might be used as a proxy for SST. We show here for the first time the proxy potential of the common and widespread evergreen dwarf shrub Calluna vulgaris (heather), using the Faroe Islands as our case study. Despite its small and irregular ring structure, the species seems suitable for dendroecological investigations. Ring width showed high and significant correlations with summer and winter air temperatures and SST. The C. vulgaris chronology from the Faroe Islands, placed directly within the North Atlantic Current, clearly reflects variations in summer SSTs over an area between Iceland and Scotland. Utilising shrubs like C. vulgaris as easy accessible and annually resolved proxies offers an interesting possibility for reconstruction of the coupled climate-ocean system at high latitudes.
authors.affiliation: Landscape Ecology and Ecosystem Dynamics, Institute of Botany and Landscape Ecology, University of Greifswald, Soldmannstraße 15, 17487, Greifswald, Germany. ilka.beil@uni-greifswald.de.
authors.forename: Ilka
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Beil
authors.affiliation: Landscape Ecology and Ecosystem Dynamics, Institute of Botany and Landscape Ecology, University of Greifswald, Soldmannstraße 15, 17487, Greifswald, Germany.
authors.forename: Allan
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Buras
authors.affiliation: Landscape Ecology and Ecosystem Dynamics, Institute of Botany and Landscape Ecology, University of Greifswald, Soldmannstraße 15, 17487, Greifswald, Germany.|Department of Ecology, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, 75651, Uppsala, Sweden.
authors.forename: Martin
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Hallinger
authors.affiliation: Landscape Ecology and Ecosystem Dynamics, Institute of Botany and Landscape Ecology, University of Greifswald, Soldmannstraße 15, 17487, Greifswald, Germany.
authors.forename: Marko
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Smiljanić
authors.affiliation: Landscape Ecology and Ecosystem Dynamics, Institute of Botany and Landscape Ecology, University of Greifswald, Soldmannstraße 15, 17487, Greifswald, Germany.
authors.forename: Martin
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Wilmking
mesh_terms: D001267:Atlantic Ocean; D029795:Calluna / Q000254:growth & development*; D002980:Climate; D003718:Denmark; D018547:Plant Stems / Q000254:growth & development*; D012623:Seawater; D013696:Temperature
keywords: Climate proxy; Dendrochronology; Nordic Seas; Oceanography; SST; Serial sectioning