ADVANCE-10K: A European contribution towards a hemispheric dendroclimatology for the Holocene

This editorial introduces a special issue of The Holocene containing 12 papers which represent highlights from a European Commission research project: ‘Analysis of Dendrochronological Variability and Associated Natural Climates in Eurasia – the last 10000 years’ (ADVANCE-10K). The focus is on the climatic implications of dendrochronology and especially on developing an integrated, dendrochronological approach to high-resolution climatic reconstruction in the Holocene, with the ultimate aim of extending this to the global scale. Emphasis is given to: (1) long chronologies from northern Fennoscandia (pine), temperate central and western Europe (oak) and Siberia (larch); (2) the precise climatic signals reflected in these chronologies and possible links to atmospheric circulation patterns; (3) complementary methodologies for extracting climatic information from subfossil trees in a variety of different environmental settings; and (4) the use of a large (subhemispheric) network of tree-ring density data to examine detailed, geographical patterns in climatic varia bility at a high temporal resolution. These studies are placed in their wider context and future directions for research in this field are also highlighted.