Volcanic dust veils from sixth century tree-ring isotopes linked to reduced irradiance, primary production and human health

Abstract The large volcanic eruptions of AD 536 and 540 led to climate cooling and contributed to hardships of Late Antiquity societies throughout Eurasia, and triggered a major environmental event in the historical Roman Empire. Our set of stable carbon isotope records from subfossil tree rings dem...

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Autores principales:	Samuli Helama, Laura Arppe, Joonas Uusitalo, Jari Holopainen, Hanna M. Mäkelä, Harri Mäkinen, Kari Mielikäinen, Pekka Nöjd, Raimo Sutinen, Jussi-Pekka Taavitsainen, Mauri Timonen, Markku Oinonen
Formato:	article
Lenguaje:	EN
Publicado:	Nature Portfolio 2018
Materias:	Medicine R Science Q
Acceso en línea:	https://doaj.org/article/c7094b3036f6406aa54939c87d76f4f9
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spelling	oai:doaj.org-article:c7094b3036f6406aa54939c87d76f4f92021-12-02T15:07:48ZVolcanic dust veils from sixth century tree-ring isotopes linked to reduced irradiance, primary production and human health10.1038/s41598-018-19760-w2045-2322https://doaj.org/article/c7094b3036f6406aa54939c87d76f4f92018-01-01T00:00:00Zhttps://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-018-19760-whttps://doaj.org/toc/2045-2322Abstract The large volcanic eruptions of AD 536 and 540 led to climate cooling and contributed to hardships of Late Antiquity societies throughout Eurasia, and triggered a major environmental event in the historical Roman Empire. Our set of stable carbon isotope records from subfossil tree rings demonstrates a strong negative excursion in AD 536 and 541–544. Modern data from these sites show that carbon isotope variations are driven by solar radiation. A model based on sixth century isotopes reconstruct an irradiance anomaly for AD 536 and 541–544 of nearly three standard deviations below the mean value based on modern data. This anomaly can be explained by a volcanic dust veil reducing solar radiation and thus primary production threatening food security over a multitude of years. We offer a hypothesis that persistently low irradiance contributed to remarkably simultaneous outbreaks of famine and Justinianic plague in the eastern Roman Empire with adverse effects on crop production and photosynthesis of the vitamin D in human skin and thus, collectively, human health. Our results provide a hitherto unstudied proxy for exploring the mechanisms of ‘volcanic summers’ to demonstrate the post-eruption deficiencies in sunlight and to explain the human consequences during such calamity years.Samuli HelamaLaura ArppeJoonas UusitaloJari HolopainenHanna M. MäkeläHarri MäkinenKari MielikäinenPekka NöjdRaimo SutinenJussi-Pekka TaavitsainenMauri TimonenMarkku OinonenNature PortfolioarticleMedicineRScienceQENScientific Reports, Vol 8, Iss 1, Pp 1-12 (2018)
institution	DOAJ
collection	DOAJ
language	EN
topic	Medicine R Science Q
spellingShingle	Medicine R Science Q Samuli Helama Laura Arppe Joonas Uusitalo Jari Holopainen Hanna M. Mäkelä Harri Mäkinen Kari Mielikäinen Pekka Nöjd Raimo Sutinen Jussi-Pekka Taavitsainen Mauri Timonen Markku Oinonen Volcanic dust veils from sixth century tree-ring isotopes linked to reduced irradiance, primary production and human health
description	Abstract The large volcanic eruptions of AD 536 and 540 led to climate cooling and contributed to hardships of Late Antiquity societies throughout Eurasia, and triggered a major environmental event in the historical Roman Empire. Our set of stable carbon isotope records from subfossil tree rings demonstrates a strong negative excursion in AD 536 and 541–544. Modern data from these sites show that carbon isotope variations are driven by solar radiation. A model based on sixth century isotopes reconstruct an irradiance anomaly for AD 536 and 541–544 of nearly three standard deviations below the mean value based on modern data. This anomaly can be explained by a volcanic dust veil reducing solar radiation and thus primary production threatening food security over a multitude of years. We offer a hypothesis that persistently low irradiance contributed to remarkably simultaneous outbreaks of famine and Justinianic plague in the eastern Roman Empire with adverse effects on crop production and photosynthesis of the vitamin D in human skin and thus, collectively, human health. Our results provide a hitherto unstudied proxy for exploring the mechanisms of ‘volcanic summers’ to demonstrate the post-eruption deficiencies in sunlight and to explain the human consequences during such calamity years.
format	article
author	Samuli Helama Laura Arppe Joonas Uusitalo Jari Holopainen Hanna M. Mäkelä Harri Mäkinen Kari Mielikäinen Pekka Nöjd Raimo Sutinen Jussi-Pekka Taavitsainen Mauri Timonen Markku Oinonen
author_facet	Samuli Helama Laura Arppe Joonas Uusitalo Jari Holopainen Hanna M. Mäkelä Harri Mäkinen Kari Mielikäinen Pekka Nöjd Raimo Sutinen Jussi-Pekka Taavitsainen Mauri Timonen Markku Oinonen
author_sort	Samuli Helama
title	Volcanic dust veils from sixth century tree-ring isotopes linked to reduced irradiance, primary production and human health
title_short	Volcanic dust veils from sixth century tree-ring isotopes linked to reduced irradiance, primary production and human health
title_full	Volcanic dust veils from sixth century tree-ring isotopes linked to reduced irradiance, primary production and human health
title_fullStr	Volcanic dust veils from sixth century tree-ring isotopes linked to reduced irradiance, primary production and human health
title_full_unstemmed	Volcanic dust veils from sixth century tree-ring isotopes linked to reduced irradiance, primary production and human health
title_sort	volcanic dust veils from sixth century tree-ring isotopes linked to reduced irradiance, primary production and human health
publisher	Nature Portfolio
publishDate	2018
url	https://doaj.org/article/c7094b3036f6406aa54939c87d76f4f9
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Volcanic dust veils from sixth century tree-ring isotopes linked to reduced irradiance, primary production and human health

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