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Tree-ring records of snow-avalanche activity in the Rodna Mountains (Eastern Carpathians, Romania)

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Abstract

We reconstruct snow-avalanche (SA) activity along three adjacent avalanche paths in the northern part of the Rodna Mountains (Eastern Carpathians, Romania) using tree-ring analyses. We sampled a total of 238 disturbed Norway spruce (Picea abies (L.) Karst.) trees and used the growth anomalies found in tree rings to obtain an avalanche chronology at the subregional scale spanning the 1979–2019 period. Multiple regression analysis of weather data covering the tree-ring-based reconstructed avalanche winters provided three distinct synoptic patterns favoring SA activity: (i) in January, when destabilization of the snow cover occurs during warm periods; (ii) in April, when destabilization of the snow cover is due to the combined effect caused by the warm days and the ones with heavy rainfall; and (iii) in November, during cold periods with snowfalls and strong winds. This study based on the tree-ring approach coupled with multiple regression analysis contributes to a better understanding of the snow-avalanche regime at both local and subregional scale. It also provides the basis for further research to decipher the linkage between the synoptic conditions favoring the naturally released avalanches at a regional scale.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the Agence Universitaire de la Francophonie (AUF) and Institute of Atomic Physics (IFA) in Romania under Grant 09-AUF-ACTIVNEIGE “Activité des avalanches de neige dans les Carpates Orientales Roumaines et Ukrainiennes.” The two anonymous reviewers are acknowledged for their positive comments which improved the earlier version of the manuscript. We acknowledge the suggestions provided by Adina Croitoru and Oana-Alexandra Dumitru, which kindly accepted to check the English language of the manuscript text.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Laboratory of Dendrochronology, Faculty of Geography, Babeş-Bolyai University, 5-7 Clinicilor Street, 400006, Cluj-Napoca-Napoca, Romania

    Ionela Georgiana Gavrilă, Iulian Horea Holobâcă, Csaba Horváth, Flaviu Meseşan & Olimpiu Traian Pop

  2. Department of Physical Geography, Geomorphology, and Palaeogeography, Yuriy Fedkovych Chernivtsi National University, str. Kotsyubynsky 2, Chernivtsi, 58012, Ukraine

    Dariia Kholiavchuk, Oles Ridush & Bogdan Ridush

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  1. Ionela Georgiana Gavrilă
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  2. Dariia Kholiavchuk
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  3. Iulian Horea Holobâcă
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  5. Csaba Horváth
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  7. Flaviu Meseşan
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  8. Olimpiu Traian Pop
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Contributions

All authors contributed to the study conception and design. Material preparation, data collection, and analysis were performed by all the authors. The first draft of the manuscript was written by Ionela Georgiana Gavrilă, Olimpiu Traian Pop, and Iulian Horea Holobâcă, and all authors commented on previous versions of the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

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Correspondence to Olimpiu Traian Pop.

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Gavrilă, I.G., Kholiavchuk, D., Holobâcă, I.H. et al. Tree-ring records of snow-avalanche activity in the Rodna Mountains (Eastern Carpathians, Romania). Nat Hazards 114, 2041–2057 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11069-022-05458-w

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