Kristina Seftigen
Om Kristina Seftigen
Research interests
I am an Associate Senior Lecturer in the Department of Earth Sciences at the University of Gothenburg, and vice-director of the Gothenburg University Laboratory of Dendrochronology (GULD). My research interests are centered on dendrochronology (tree-ring research). In short, I use the tree-ring proxy archive to characterize short- to long-term variability in moisture and temperature during the last ~2,000 years, at local, regional and hemispheric scales. While the tree-ring archive is the core of my work, my research interests also include other proxy records, and how these relate to General Circulation Models.
I am particularly interested in past hydroclimatic changes in Scandinavia. By applying new methods and incorporating other tree-ring parameters than the commonly used tree-ring width proxy, I aim to refine our knowledge of past hydroclimate changes in Scandinavia – a region traditionally overlooked in tree-ring studies of past droughts because of the cool and rather humid climate regime.
Ongoing projects
I am the PI of two ongoing projects:
- “Bridging paleoclimate records and climate model simulations with a novel model/proxy comparison framework” (duration 2020-2022, funded by FORMAS). This project combines tree-ring anatomy, proxy system modelling, and the last-millennium PMIP4/CMIP6 model simulations to better characterize the northern hemisphere temperature evolution over the last ~1,000 years. Specifically, we 1) produce and analyze multiple, millennium-long, dendroanatomical time series at strategically selected sites across the Northern Hemisphere; 2) develop and adapt a proxy system modelling (PSM) framework that is employed to sharpen climate-signal interpretation of the novel proxy parameters, to quantify uncertainties with traditional statistical calibration approaches and retrodict inter-annual to long-term temperature variability of the last millennium; 3) compare and integrate proxy data and model simulations to jointly address uncertainties in both and generate critical insights into the dynamics of the climate system that each would be unable to provide separately. Project partners include the Dendrosciences group at the Swiss Federal Research Institute WSL (project page here), the Tree-Ring Laboratory University of St Andrews, and the Faculty of Forestry and Wood Sciences, Czech University of Life Sciences.
- “Are droughts part of the new normal for Sweden - integrating proxy data and model simulations for insight into past and future hydroclimate” (duration 2020-2023, funded by Vetenskapsrådet). The devastating drought recently affecting Scandinavia highlighted again the heavy impact of a variable climate on environment and human welfare, and the challenge to build a resilience in a future of climate change and increasing demographic pressure. Within this alerting context of extreme weather events perturbing the historically established climate fluctuation, the principal research objectives of the current project are to achieve a better understanding of region-specific hydroclimate dynamics at inter-annual to century scales against a background of equally significant longer-term climate variability; and how mechanisms of natural climate variability interact with anthropogenic climate forcing. One of the contributions of the project will be a novel > 1,000 year-long hydroclimate tree-ring dataset from Sweden that will not only provide a highly-sought after real-world constraint to the last-millennium GCM simulations, but will be the first real backbone for the late-Holocene high-resolution hydroclimatology in Sweden, by providing a significant long-term perspective for a region where absolutely dated and annually-resolved long time series (1,000 years or more) of paleo-hydroclimatology are currently non-existent. Importantly, extending the proxy series to cover the MCA period will provide us with a unique test-bed for investigating the present-day climate dynamics and mid-latitude climate ecosystem interactions, as MCA represents the closest analogue to modern warming and thus defines a crucial baseline by which modern post-industrial climate trends can be compared.
I am also closely involved in the project XELLCLIM - Benchmarking xylem cell anatomy for tree-ring based climate reconstructions (link https://www.wsl.ch/de/projekte/xellclim.html), led by Dr. Georg von Arx and funded by Schweizerischer Nationalfonds SNF (duration 2019 – 2021).
Current teaching:
- GV2006 Project in Earth Sciences
- GV1410 Geovetenskap: Grundkurs
- NG0230 Climate Change, a Geographical Perspective
-
Fennoscandian tree-ring anatomy shows a warmer modern than medieval
climate.
Jesper Björklund, Kristina Seftigen, Markus Stoffel, Marina V Fonti, Sven Kottlow, David C Frank, Jan Esper, Patrick Fonti, Hugues Goosse, Håkan Grudd, Björn E Gunnarson, Daniel Nievergelt, Elena Pellizzari, Marco Carrer, Georg von Arx
Nature - 2023 -
Partly decoupled tree-ring width and leaf phenology response to 20th century temperature change in
Sweden
Petter Stridbeck, Jesper Björklund, Mauricio Fuentes, Björn E. Gunnarson, Anna Maria Jönsson, Hans W. Linderholm, Fredrik Charpentier Ljungqvist, Cecilia Olsson, David Rayner, Eva Rocha, Peng Zhang, Kristina Seftigen
Dendrochronologia - 2022 -
Prospects for dendroanatomy in paleoclimatology - a case study on Picea engelmannii from the Canadian
Rockies
Kristina Seftigen, Marina V. Fonti, Brian Luckman, Miloš Rydval, Petter Stridbeck, Georg Von Arx, Rob Wilson, Jesper Björklund
Climate of the Past - 2022 -
The Origin of Tree-Ring Reconstructed Summer Cooling in Northern Europe During the 18th Century Eruption of
Laki
J. Edwards, K. J. Anchukaitis, B. E. Gunnarson, C. Pearson, Kristina Seftigen, G. von Arx, Hans W. Linderholm
Paleoceanography and Paleoclimatology - 2022 -
Hydroclimate changes over Sweden in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries: a millennium
perspective
Deliang Chen, Peng Zhang, Kristina Seftigen, Tinghai Ou, Markus Giese, Roland Barthel
Geografiska Annaler: Series A, Physical Geography - 2021 -
The utility of bulk wood density for tree-ring
research
Jesper Björklund, Georg von Arx, Patrick Fonti, Petter Stridbeck, Tom De Mil, Anna Neycken, Kristina Seftigen
Dendrochronologia - 2021 -
Current understanding of groundwater recharge and groundwater drought in Sweden compared to countries with similar geology and
climate
Roland Barthel, Moa Stangefelt, Markus Giese, Michelle Nygren, Kristina Seftigen, Deliang Chen
Geografiska Annaler: Series A, Physical Geography - 2021 -
The influence of decision-making in tree ring-based climate
reconstructions
Ulf Büntgen, Kathy Allen, Kevin J. Anchukaitis, Dominique Arseneault, Étienne Boucher, Achim Bräuning, Snigdhansu Chatterjee, Paolo Cherubini, Olga V. Churakova (Sidorova), Christophe Corona, Fabio Gennaretti, Jussi Grießinger, Sebastian Guillet, Joel Guiot, Björn Gunnarson, Samuli Helama, Philipp Hochreuther, Malcolm K. Hughes, Peter Huybers, Alexander V. Kirdyanov, Paul J. Krusic, Josef Ludescher, Wolfgang J.H. Meier, Vladimir S. Myglan, Kurt Nicolussi, Clive Oppenheimer, Frederick Reinig, Matthew W. Salzer, Kristina Seftigen, Alexander R. Stine, Markus Stoffel, Scott St. George, Ernesto Tejedor, Aleyda Trevino, Valerie Trouet, Jianglin Wang, Rob Wilson, Bao Yang, Guobao Xu, Jan Esper
Nature Communications - 2021 -
The spatiotemporal distribution of historical malaria cases in Sweden: a climatic
perspective
Tzu Tung Chen, Fredrik Charpentier Ljungqvist, Helene Castenbrandt, Franziska Hildebrandt, Mathias Mølbak Ingholt, Jenny C Hesson, Johan Ankarklev, Kristina Seftigen, Hans W. Linderholm
Malaria journal - 2021 -
Using Blue Intensity from drought-sensitive Pinus sylvestris in Fennoscandia to improve reconstruction of past hydroclimate
variability
Kristina Seftigen, Mauricio Fuentes, Fredrik Charpentier Ljungqvist, Jesper Björklund
Climate Dynamics - 2020 -
Dendroclimatic potential of dendroanatomy in temperature-sensitive Pinus
sylvestris
Jesper Björklund, Kristina Seftigen, Patrick Fonti, Daniel Nievergelt, Georg von Arx
Dendrochronologia - 2020 -
Ensemble standardization constraints on the influence of the tree growth trends in
dendroclimatology
F. Shi, B. Yang, Hans W. Linderholm, Kristina Seftigen, F. M. Yang, Q. Z. Yin, X. M. Shao, Z. T. Guo
Climate Dynamics - 2020 -
Ranking of tree-ring based hydroclimate reconstructions of the past
millennium
Fredrik Charpentier Ljungqvist, Alma Piermattei, Andrea Seim, Paul J. Krusic, Ulf Büntgen, Minhui He, Alexander V. Kirdyanov, Jürg Luterbacher, Lea Schneider, Kristina Seftigen, David W. Stahle, Ricardo Villalba, Bao Yang, Jan Esper
Quaternary Science Reviews - 2020 -
Assessing non-linearity in European temperature-sensitive tree-ring
data
Fredrik Charpentier Ljungqvist, Peter Thejll, Jesper Björklund, Björn E. Gunnarson, Alma Piermattei, Miloš Rydval, Kristina Seftigen, Bård Støve, Ulf Büntgen
Dendrochronologia - 2020 -
Disentangling the multi-faceted growth patterns of primary Picea abies forests in the Carpathian
arc
Jesper Björklund, Miloš Rydval, Jonathan S. Schurman, Kristina Seftigen, Volodymyr Trotsiuk, Pavel Janda, Martin Mikoláš, Martin Dušátko, Vojtěch Čada, Radek Bače, Miroslav Svoboda
Agricultural and Forest Meteorology - 2019 -
European warm-season temperature and hydroclimate since 850
CE
F. C. Ljungqvist, A. Seim, P. J. Krusic, J. F. Gonzalez-Rouco, J. P. Werner, E. R. Cook, E. Zorita, J. Luterbacher, E. Xoplaki, G. Destouni, E. Garcia-Bustainante, C. A. M. Aguilar, Kristina Seftigen, J. L. Wang, M. H. Gagen, J. Esper, O. Solomina, D. Fleitmann, U. Buntgen
Environmental Research Letters - 2019 -
The climatic drivers of normalized difference vegetation index and tree‐ring‐based estimates of forest productivity are spatially coherent but temporally decoupled in Northern Hemispheric
forests
Kristina Seftigen, David Frank, Jesper Björklund, Flurin Babst, Benjamin Poulter
Global Ecology and Biogeography - 2018 -
Arctic hydroclimate variability during the last 2000 years – current understanding and research
challenges
Hans W. Linderholm, Marie Nicolle, Pierre Francus, Konrad Gajewski, Samuli Helama, Atte Korhola, Olga Solomina, Zicheng Yu, Peng Zhang, William J. D’Andrea, Maxime Debret, Dmitry V. Divine, Björn E. Gunnarson, Neil J. Loader, Nicolas Massei, Kristina Seftigen, Elizabeth K. Thomas, Johannes Werner, Sofia Andersson, Annika Berntsson, Tomi P. Luoto, Liisa Nevalainen, Saija Saarni, Minna Väliranta
Climate of the Past - 2018 -
When tree rings go global: Challenges and opportunities for retro- and prospective
insight
F. Babst, P. Bodesheim, N. Charney, A. D. Friend, M. P. Girardin, S. Klesse, D. J. P. Moore, Kristina Seftigen, J. Björklund, O. Bouriaud, A. Dawson, R. J. DeRose, M. C. Dietze, A. H. Eckes, B. Enquist, D. C. Frank, M. D. Mahecha, B. Poulter, S. Record, V. Trouet, R. H. Turton, Z. Zhang, M. E. K. Evans
Quaternary Science Reviews - 2018 -
A 970-year-long summer temperature reconstruction from Rogen, west-central Sweden, based on blue intensity from tree
rings
Mauricio Fuentes, Riikka Salo, Jesper Björklund, Kristina Seftigen, Peng Zhang, Björn Gunnarson, Juan-Carlos Aravena, Hans W. Linderholm
The Holocene - 2018 -
Assessing forest vulnerability to climate warming using a process-based model of tree growth: bad prospects for
rear-edges
Raúl Sánchez-Salguero, Jesus Julio Camarero, Emilia Gutiérrez, Fidel González Rouco, Antonio Gazol, Gabriel Sangüesa-Barreda, Laia Andreu-Hayles, Juan Carlos Linares, Kristina Seftigen
Global Change Biology - 2017 -
Hydroclimate variability in Scandinavia over the last millennium - Insights from a climate model-proxy data
comparison
Kristina Seftigen, Hugues Goosse, Francois Klein, Deliang Chen
Climate of the Past - 2017 -
Cell size and wall dimensions drive distinct variability of earlywood and latewood density in Northern Hemisphere
conifers
J. Bjorklund, Kristina Seftigen, F. Schweingruber, P. Fonti, G. von Arx, M. V. Bryukhanova, H. E. Cuny, M. Carrer, D. Castagneri, D. C. Frank
New Phytologist - 2017 -
A comparison between Tree-Ring Width and Blue Intensity high and low frequency signals from Pinus sylvestris L. from the Central and Northern Scandinavian
Mountains
Mauricio Fuentes, Hans W. Linderholm, Kristina Seftigen, Jesper Björklund, Björn E Gunnarson, Juan Aravena
TRACE - Tree Rings in Archaeology, Climatolog y and Ecology, Volume 14. Scien tific Technical Report 16/04, GFZ German Research Centre for Geosciences, p. 38-43. doi: 10.2312/GFZ.b103-16042. - 2016 -
Old World megadroughts and pluvials during the Common
Era
ER Cook, R Seager, Y Kushnir, KR Briffa, U Buntgen, D Frank, PJ Krusic, W Tegel, G van der Schrier, L Andreu-Hayles, M Baillie, C Baittinger, N Bleicher, N Bonde, D Brown, M Carrer, R Cooper, K Cufar, C Dittmar, J Esper, C Griggs, B Gunnarson, B Gunther, E Guiterrez, K Haneca, S Helama, F Herzig, K-U Heussner, J Hoffman, P Janda, R Kontic, N Köse, T Kyncl, T Levanic, Hans W. Linderholm, S Manning, TM Melvin, D Miles, B Neuwirth, K Nicolussi, P Nola, M Panayotov, I Popa, A Rothe, Kristina Seftigen, Andrea Seim, H Svarva, M Svoboda, T Thun, M Timonen, R Touchan, V Trotsiuk, V Trouet, F Walder, T Wazny, R Wilson, C Zhang
Science Advances - 2015 -
A tree-ring field reconstruction of Fennoscandian summer hydroclimate variability for the last
millennium
Kristina Seftigen, Jesper Björklund, Cook Edward, Hans W. Linderholm
Climate Dynamics - 2015 -
Fennoscandia revisited: a spatially improved tree‑ring reconstruction of summer temperatures for the last 900
years
Hans W. Linderholm, Jesper Björklund, Kristina Seftigen, Björn Gunnarson, Mauricio Fuentes
Climate Dynamics - 2015 -
The Potential of Deriving Tree-Ring-Based Field Reconstructions of Droughts and Pluvials over
Fennoscandia
Kristina Seftigen, E. R. Cook, Hans W. Linderholm, Mauricio Fuentes, Jesper Björklund
Journal of Climate - 2015 -
Using adjusted Blue Intensity data to attain high-quality summer temperature information: A case study from Central
Scandinavia
Jesper Björklund, Björn Gunnarson, Kristina Seftigen, Peng Zhang, Hans W. Linderholm
The Holocene - 2015 -
Late Holocene spatiotemporal hydroclimatic variability over Fennoscandia inferred from
tree-rings
Kristina Seftigen
2014 -
Growth dynamics of tree-line and lake-shore Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris L.) in the central Scandinavian Mountains during the Medieval Climate Anomaly and the early Little Ice
Age
Hans W. Linderholm, Peng Zhang, Björn Gunnarson, Jesper Björklund, Emad Farahat, Mauricio Fuentes, Eva Rocha, Riikka Salo, Kristina Seftigen, Petter Stridbeck, Yu Liu
Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution - 2014 -
Blue intensity and density from Northern Fennoscandian tree rings, exploring the potential to improve summer temperature reconstructions with earlywood
information
Jesper Björklund, Björn Gunnarson, Kristina Seftigen, Jan Esper, Hans W. Linderholm
Climate of the Past - 2014 -
Reconstructed drought variability in southeastern Sweden since the
1650s
Kristina Seftigen, Hans W. Linderholm, Igor Drobyshev, Mats Niklasson
International Journal of Climatology - 2013 -
Radial growth of Norway spruce and Scots pine: effects of nitrogen deposition
experiments
Kristina Seftigen, Filip Moldan, Hans W. Linderholm
European Journal of Forest Research - 2013 -
The influence of climate on 13C/12C and 18O/16O ratios in tree ring cellulose of Pinus sylvestris growing in the central Scandinavian
Mountains
Kristina Seftigen, Hans W. Linderholm, N Loader, Y Liu, G.H.F Young
Chemical Geology - 2011 -
Reconstruction of regional drought index in southern Sweden since 1750
AD
I Drobyshev, M Niklasson, Hans W. Linderholm, Kristina Seftigen, T Hickler, O Eggertsson
The Holocene - 2011 -
Dendroclimatology in Fennoscandia – from past accomplishments to future
potential
Hans W. Linderholm, Jesper Björklund, Kristina Seftigen, Björn E Gunnarson, Håkan Grudd, Jee-Hoon Jeong, Igor Drobyshev, Yu Liu
Climate of the Past - 2010 -
Temperature variations recorded in Pinus tabulaeformis tree rings from the southern and northern slopes of the central Qinling Mountains, central
China
Yu Liu, Hans W. Linderholm, Huiming Song, Qiufang Cai, Qinhua Tian, Junyan Sun, Deliang Chen, Elisabeth Simelton, Kristina Seftigen, Hua Tian, Ruiyuan Wang, Guang Bao, Zhisheng An
BOREAS - 2009 -
Temperature variations recorded in Pinus tabulaeformis tree rings from the southern and northern slopes of the central Qinling Mountains, central
China.
Y Liu, Hans W. Linderholm, H. Song, Q. Cai, Q. Tian, J. Sun, Deliang Chen, Elisabeth Simelton, Kristina Seftigen, H. Tian, R. Wang, G. Bao, Z. An
Boreas - 2009 -
Dendroclimatology in Fennoscandia – from past accomplishments to future
potentials
Hans W. Linderholm, Jesper Björklund, Kristina Seftigen, Björn E Gunnarson, Igor Drobyshev, Jee-Hoon Jeong, Petter Stridbeck, Yu Liu
Climate of the past Discussions - 2009 -
Effects of experimental nitrogen addition, liming and reduced acid deposition on radial growth of Norway spruce and Scots pine at Gårdsjön,
Sweden
Kristina Seftigen
2008 -
Potential lateral expansion of wetlands in the county of Västra Götaland,
Sweden
Kristina Seftigen
2007