Climate reconstruction for the Entre‐Douro‐e‐Minho region ( NW Portugal) between AD 1626 and AD 1820: synthesis of viticulture data and foraminiferal evidence

Journal Article · Mon Jun 25 00:00:00 EDT 2018 · Boreas

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1111/bor.12331· OSTI ID:1457073

Moreno, João  ^[1]; Fatela, Francisco ^[2]; Gonçalves, Mário A. ^[2]; Leorri, Eduardo ^[3]; Trigo, Ricardo M. ^[4]; Moreno, Filipa ^[5]; Gómez‐Navarro, Juan J. ^[6]; Brázdil, Rudolf ^[7]; Ferreira, Manuel J. ^[8]

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1. Faculdade de Ciências Instituto Dom Luiz ‐ IDL Universidade de Lisboa Campo Grande Lisboa 1749‐016 Portugal
2. Faculdade de Ciências Departamento de Geologia and Instituto Dom Luiz – IDL Universidade de Lisboa Campo Grande Lisboa 1749‐016 Portugal
3. Department of Geological Sciences East Carolina University Greenville NC 27858‐4353 USA
4. Faculdade de Ciências Departamento de Engenharia Geográfica Geofísica e Energia and Instituto Dom Luiz – IDL Universidade de Lisboa Campo Grande Lisboa 1749‐016 Portugal
5. Departamento de Ciências da Terra Universidade do Minho Campus de Gualtar Braga 4710‐057 Portugal
6. Department of Physics Faculty of Chemistry University of Murcia Campus de Espinardo Murcia 30100 Spain
7. Institute of Geography Masaryk University Brno 611 37 Czech Republic, Global Change Research Institute Czech Academy of Sciences Brno 603 00 Czech Republic
8. Centro Algoritmi Universidade do Minho Campus de Azurém Guimarães 4800‐058 Portugal

This work presents two novel climate‐related time series for the northwest of Portugal. The first is an AD 1626–1820 triennial‐resolved wine production series, based on the Benedictine accounts from six monasteries of the Entre‐Douro‐e‐Minho ( EDM ) region. The second, an AD 1654–2010 benthic foraminiferal record from the Caminha salt marsh, located in the lower estuary of the Minho River. The series were analysed together for the common period to outline how both palaeoclimatic proxies respond to the most likely natural environmental drivers of temporal variability, solar forcing included. Singular spectral analysis revealed a common significant multidecadal periodicity agreeing with recognized long‐term changes in solar activity, i.e. the Lower Gleissberg cycle (50–80 years). The application of wavelet analysis allowed the detection of high coherence at this time scale (centred at c . 64 years) between marsh foraminifera and both total solar irradiance and the North Atlantic Oscillation index. This relationship persists throughout the c .  AD 1730–1875 period. The continuous wavelet transform results for wine production were inconclusive. As the time‐span analysed is recognized as one of high socio‐economic and political distress, the main human‐driven impacts on wine production, particularly in the two periods of greatly reduced solar activity – the Maunder and Dalton Minima – are reviewed in the light of the available historical records. In addition to a documented climate‐related agricultural crisis in Portugal, damage and losses to wine production may have been triggered by several local and international conflicts in which the country was involved. But to what extent the two influences contributed to the wine production variations observed in the EDM region during both periods remains an open question.

• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE
• OSTI ID: 1457073
• Journal Information: Boreas, Journal Name: Boreas Vol. 47 Journal Issue: 4; ISSN 0300-9483
• Publisher: Wiley-Blackwell
• Country of Publication: Norway
• Language: English