Altitudinal Gradients and Forest Response:
Climate, Hydrology and Isotope Variability
of a Mediterranean Ecosystem

Abstract:

In the ongoing scientific effort to improve the knowledge about climate change, paleoclimate proxies can provide crucial insights into past climatic conditions. This is especially important in the Mediterranean which is predicted to be strongly affected by climate change. Stable oxygen isotopes of tree rings can be used as one of those proxies but seem not to be readily interpretable on the island of Corsica. To fill this gap and identify potential influences on isotope content during the waters pathway from source in the oceans to sink in trees, climatology, dendroecology, isotope-hydrology and dendroisotope research have been united in a unique multi-disciplined project.