Recent global warming and its potential impact on the hydrological cycle and subsequent ecological implications strengthens the need to quantify the degree of past natural climate variability. This demand becomes even more critical particularly for drought sensitive though, densely highly populated regions with intense agricultural background, such as most of the Mediterranean basin. Although significant progress has been made in assessing past climate variations over Europe, most long-term high-resolution reconstructions are restricted to temperature variations at high latitudes or altitudes. The Balkan Peninsula plays a key role as climatic transition zone between the west and eastern Mediterranean and also between the Mediterranean and Central European synoptics (Griffiths et al. 2004, Xoplaki et al. 2003, Xoplaki et al. 2004, Nicault et al. 2008, Qiriazi & Sala 2000). It is, however, still in an early stage of development from a dendroclimatological perspective (Vakarelov et al. 2001, Panayotov et al. 2009 a, b, Büntgen et al. 2007, Popa & Kern 2009).
Albania appears as a pure white spot in terms of existing tree-ring studies but provides large areas of Pinus heldreichii Christ forests, an endemic, long-living high-elevation species on the Balkan Peninsula and southern Italy.
Here we present new millennium-long tree-ring width (TRW) and maximum latewood density (MXD) records of various Pinus heldreichii sites across Albania. We explore local- to regional-scale signal strength of the different chronologies, and evaluate parameter-specific climate sensitivity with particular emphasize on potential age-related changes in climate response. Our results are discussed in the light of potential long-term climate reconstruction.