Disentangling the Evidence of Milankovitch Forcing From Tree-Ring and Sedimentary Records

Publisher Copyright: Copyright © 2022 Helama, Herva, Arppe, Gunnarson, Frank, Holopainen, Nöjd, Mäkinen, Mielikäinen, Sutinen, Timonen, Uusitalo and Oinonen.Tree-ring records constitute excellent high-resolution data and provide valuable information for climate science and paleoclimatology. Tree-ring reconstructions of past temperature variations agree to show evidence for annual-to-centennial anomalies in past climate and place the industrial-era warming in the context of the late Holocene climate patterns and regimes. Despite their wide use in paleoclimate research, however, tree rings have also been deemed unsuitable as low-frequency indicators of past climate. The arising debate concerns whether the millennia-long tree-ring records show signals of orbital forcing due to the Milankovitch cycles. Here, we produce a summer-temperature reconstruction from tree-ring chronology running through mid- and late-Holocene times (since 5486 BCE) comprising minimum blue channel light intensity (BI). The BI reconstruction correlates with existing and new tree-ring chronologies built from maximum latewood density (MXD) and, unlike the MXD data, shows temperature trends on Milankovitch scales comparable to various types of sedimentary proxy across the circumpolar Arctic. Our results demonstrate an unrevealed potential of novel, unconventional tree-ring variables to contribute to geoscience and climate research by their capability to provide paleoclimate estimates from inter-annual scales up to those relevant to orbital forcing.Peer reviewe

NHLRC2 variants identified in patients with fibrosis, neurodegeneration, and cerebral angiomatosis (FINCA) : characterisation of a novel cerebropulmonary disease

A novel multi-organ disease that is fatal in early childhood was identified in three patients from two non-consanguineous families. These children were born asymptomatic but at the age of 2 months they manifested progressive multi-organ symptoms resembling no previously known disease. The main clinical features included progressive cerebropulmonary symptoms, malabsorption, progressive growth failure, recurrent infections, chronic haemolytic anaemia and transient liver dysfunction. In the affected children, neuropathology revealed increased angiomatosis-like leptomeningeal, cortical and superficial white matter vascularisation and congestion, vacuolar degeneration and myelin loss in white matter, as well as neuronal degeneration. Interstitial fibrosis and previously undescribed granuloma-like lesions were observed in the lungs. Hepatomegaly, steatosis and collagen accumulation were detected in the liver. A whole-exome sequencing of the two unrelated families with the affected children revealed the transmission of two heterozygous variants in the NHL repeat-containing protein 2 (NHLRC2); an amino acid substitution p.Asp148Tyr and a frameshift 2-bp deletion p.Arg201GlyfsTer6. NHLRC2 is highly conserved and expressed in multiple organs and its function is unknown. It contains a thioredoxin-like domain; however, an insulin turbidity assay on human recombinant NHLRC2 showed no thioredoxin activity. In patient-derived fibroblasts, NHLRC2 levels were low, and only p.Asp148Tyr was expressed. Therefore, the allele with the frameshift deletion is likely non-functional. Development of the Nhlrc2 null mouse strain stalled before the morula stage. Morpholino knockdown of nhlrc2 in zebrafish embryos affected the integrity of cells in the midbrain region. This is the first description of a fatal, early-onset disease; we have named it FINCA disease based on the combination of pathological features that include fibrosis, neurodegeneration, and cerebral angiomatosis.Peer reviewe

Dendrochronology advances intelligent use of ecosystems and offers potential business opportunities

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Monitieteistä puulustotutkimusta: datoja, satoja, katoja, latoja

Uutiset, Luke201

Applying a synthetic approach to the resilience of Finnish reindeer herding as a changing livelihood

Reindeer herding is an emblematic livelihood for Northern Finland, culturally important for local people and valuable in tourism marketing. We examine the livelihood resilience of Finnish reindeer herding by narrowing the focus of general resilience on social-ecological systems (SESs) to a specific livelihood while also acknowledging wider contexts in which reindeer herding is embedded. The questions for specified resilience can be combined with the applied DPSIR approach (Drivers; Pressures: resilience to what; State: resilience of what; Impacts: resilience for whom; Responses: resilience by whom and how). This paper is based on a synthesis of the authors' extensive anthropological fieldwork on reindeer herding and other land uses in Northern Finland. Our objective is to synthesize various opportunities and challenges that underpin the resilience of reindeer herding as a viable livelihood. The DPSIR approach, applied here as a three step procedure, helps focus the analysis on different components of SES and their dynamic interactions. First, various land use-related DPSIR factors and their relations (synergies and trade-offs) to reindeer herding are mapped. Second, detailed DPSIR factors underpinning the resilience of reindeer herding are identified. Third, examples of interrelations between DPSIR factors are explored, revealing the key dynamics between Pressures, State, Impacts, and Responses related to the livelihood resilience of reindeer herding. In the Discussion section, we recommend that future applications of the DPSIR approach in examining livelihood resilience should (1) address cumulative pressures, (2) consider the state dimension as more tuned toward the social side of SES, (3) assess both the negative and positive impacts of environmental change on the examined livelihood by a combination of science led top-down and participatory bottom-up approaches, and (4) examine and propose governance solutions as well as local adaptations by reindeer herders as equally relevant responses to enhance livelihood resilience

Depositional history of peatland pines (Pinus sylvestris L.) in NW Enontekiö, Finnish Lapland : implications for Middle Holocene drought and temperature fluctuations

Publisher Copyright: © 2023 The Authors. Boreas published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of The Boreas Collegium.High altitude and latitude findings of subfossil peatland pine trees were unearthed from the region of NW Finnish Lapland and dated by 14C and tree-ring methods. The depositional history of the trees illustrated two distinct peatland pine phases dated to Middle Holocene intervals 4900–4400 and 4100–3400 cal. a BC. It seems evident that both thermal and hydroclimatic fluctuations have played roles of varying importance in the establishment of this pine population and its demise. The presence of these pines, from a site ~60 km north of the coniferous timberline and conditions ~1 °C and 100 degree-days colder than those at the present-day timberline, concurs with previous studies demonstrating the association between the high-latitude summer-temperature cooling and circumpolar timberline retreat since the Middle Holocene due to Milankovitch forcing. On the other hand, the peatland pine recruitment was made possible by drier than present surface conditions during the previously reconstructed Middle Holocene drought anomaly (Hyvärinen-Alhonen event). Our data suggest this event was not continuous but reached its two-phase climax during the peatland pine phases, with an interruption of several centuries with moister surface conditions between 4400 and 4100 cal. a BC. The findings highlight the sensitivity of well-dated peatland tree assemblages in terms of recording past climatic evolution and events and the need for new collections from north and south Fennoscandia and the Baltic region, for more detailed analyses over extended time intervals and regions.Peer reviewe

Myths on local use of natural resources and social equity of land use governance:reindeer herding in Finland

Abstract Previous literature on social equity has focused on procedure, distribution and recognition related to land use governance. We propose novel approach to examine social equity by following ideational turn with an aim to explore globally used and locally persistent myths that (mis)inform governance in practice and effect on the three dimensions of social equity for reindeer herding in northern Finland. We take synthetizing approach and elaborate and employ a comparative cognitive mapping method to classify the reviewed literature according to its linkage to the three dimensions of social equity, and type of relationship (utilizing, questioning, contextualizing) to the examined four myths. The myths of “tragedy of the commons”, “non-human wilderness ideal”, “noble savages”, and “majority will constituting democracy” are persistently used in land use governance mainly because they provide justifications for furthering particular interest. Yet, these myths are also widely questioned due to the problems that their employment produces for reindeer herders. Furthermore, the background assumptions of the myths are often somewhat problematic. We discuss reinterpretation of these myths revolving around 1) a holistic approach, 2) considering non-indigenous local people as noble savages, 3) problems of melding herders as a stakeholder group similar to other groups, 4) steps from majority democracy towards self-governance, 5) whether social equity can be bought, and 6) biocultural diversity. These reinterpretations can inform land use policy and governance also beyond the case study. Therefore, critical view on the explanatory and constitutive powers of myths should be part of the portfolios to achieve social equity

The potential of dendrochronology for tree growth and yield studies in Mozambique

The 9th conference on dendrochronology , 13-17 January 2014, Melbourne, Australia : 001. Tropical dendrochronology201