A 548-year tree-ring chronology of oak (Quercus spp.) for southeast Slovenia and its significance as a dating tool and climate archive

Tree-ring series of oak, from both living trees (Quercus petraea and Q. robur) and historic timbers in southeastern Slovenia were assembled into a 548-year regional chronology spanning the period A.D. 1456-2003. It is currently the longest and the most replicated oak chronology in this part of Europe located at the transition between Mediterranean, Alpine and continental climatic influence. The chronology correlated significantly with regional and local chronologies up to 700 km away in Austria, Hungary, Serbia, Czech Republic and southern Germany. It also showed good "heteroconnection", i.e. agreement with chronologies of beech (Fagus sylvatica), ash (Fraxinus excelsior) and silver fir (Abies alba) in Slovenia. A preliminary dendroclimatic analysis shows that precipitation and temperature in June accounted for a high amount of variance (r(2) =0.51) in the tree-ring widths. The chronology thus contains considerable potential as a climate archive. We also present its use as a tool for the dating of wooden objects of the cultural heritage. Moreover, the chronology can be a point of reference for building tree-ring chronologies in neighboring regions.