Irina Panyushkina

Associate Research Professor

 

Research Interests:   

Climate Change, Dendrochronology, Arctic Hydrology, Miyake events, Radiocarbon 
 
Ongoing projects: 
  • Hydrology and Arctic Amplification 
  • Tree-ring radiocarbon  as proxy of cosmic ray intensity in the past 
  • Chronology of Eurasian Steppe from antiquity to the Middle Ages
Geography of Research Projects:   
Central Asia, Northern Eurasia , Northern America 
 
Timeframe: 
Common Era, Holocene, Late Pleistocene  
 
Irina P. Panyushkina joined the Laboratory of Tree-Ring Research at the University of Arizona as a faculty member in 2006. She completed her doctoral training at the Sukachev Institute of Forest, Russian Academy of Sciences. A Fulbright awardee of the U.S. Department of State, she has developed and directed approximately two dozen international research projects funded by the National Science Foundation, NASA, the U.S. Department of State, the USDA, and European Union agencies. Her research focuses on environmental and climate variability using tree-ring proxies to place ongoing changes in the climate state within long-term Earth system context. Fluent in Russian and experienced in living and working across Europe, Asia, South America, and the United States, including remote locations, she brings a global perspective to tree-ring research. Her ability to operate in extreme conditions and culturally diverse settings uniquely positions her for international leadership in academic research.
 
Selected publications:
 
  • Prusevich A., Meko D.M., Panyushkina I.P., Shiklomanov A.I., Lammers R.B., Glidden S., R. Thaxton, 2025. TRISH: Tree-ring integrated system for hydrology, a web-based tool for reconstruction. Journal of Environmental Modeling and Software. 10.1016/j.envsoft.2025.106590.
  • Panyushkina I.P., JullA.J.T., Molnar M., T. Varga, Kontul’I., Hantemirov R., Kukarskih V., Sljusarenko I., Myglan V., Livina V. 2024. The timing of the ca-660 BCE Miyake solar-proton event constrained to between 664 and 663 BCE. Communications Earth & Environment 5:454, 10.1038/s43247-024-01618-x
  • Usmanova E.R., K.Z. Uksenbay, M.B. Koja and I. P. Panyushkina. 2024. The Mausoleum of Jochi Khan: The History of Research. UNESCO International Institute of Central Asian Studies, Samarkand, 284 p. Book in Russian, ISBN 978-9943-357-74-7.
  • Panyushkina I.P., Meko D.M, Shiklomanov A., Thaxton R., Myglan V.V., Barinov V., Taynik A. Unprecedented acceleration of winter discharge of Upper Yenisei River inferred from tree rings. Environmental Research Letters 16 (12). 10.1088/1748-9326/ac3e20
  • Meko D.M., Biondi F., Taylor A.H., Panyushkina I.P., Thaxton R.D., Prusevich A., Shiklomanov A.I., Lammers R.B., Glidden S. 2024. Runoff variability in the Truckee-Carson River Basin from tree rings and water balance model. Earth Interaction 28 (1).  https://doi.org/10.1175/EI-D-23-0018.1
  • Panyushkina I.P., Livina V., Molnár M., Varga T., Jull A.J.T. 2022. Scaling C14-excursion signal in multiple C14tree-ring series with Dynamic Time Warping Radiocarbon. 10.1017/RDC.2022.25
  • Miyake F., Panyushkina I.P., Jull A.J.T., Helama S., Kanzawa K., Moriya T., Nicolussi K., Oinonen M., Salzer M., Tokanai F., Takeyama M., Wacker L. 2021.A single-year cosmic ray event of 5410 BCE registered in 14C of tree rings. Geophysical Research Letters, 10.1029/2021GL093419.
  • Terrasi et al. 2020. Can the 14C anomaly in 1054 CE be due to SN1054? Radiocarbon, 10.1017/RDC.2020.58.
  • Cook et al. 2020. The European Russia Drought Atlas (1400-2016 CE). Climatic Dynamics.  10.1007/s00382-019-05115-2
  • Buentgen et al. 2018. Tree rings reveal globally coherent signature of cosmogenic radiocarbon events in 774 and 993 CE. Nature Communication, Sept 6, Doi: 10.1038/s41467-018-06036-0.
  • Voelker S.L., Brooks R.J., Meinzer F.C., Anderson R., Bader M. K.-F., Battipaglia G., Becklin K.M., Beerling D., Bert D., Betancourt J.L., Dawson T.E., Domec J.-C., Guyette R.P., Körner C., Leavitt S.W., Linder S., Marshall J.D., Mildner M., Ogée J., Panyushkina I.P., Plumpton H.J., Pregitzer K.S., Saurer M., Smith A.R., Siegwolf R.T.W., Stambaugh M.C., Talhelm A.F., Tardif J.C., Van de Water P.K., Ward J.K., Wingate L. 2016.  A dynamic leaf gas-exchange strategy is conserved in woody plants under changing ambient CO2: evidence from carbon isotope discrimination in paleo and CO2 enrichment studies. Global Change Biology. doi: 10.1111/gcb.13102
  • Meko D.M., Panyushkina I.P, AgafonovL.I., Edwards J.A., 2020. Impact of high flows of an Arctic river on ring widths of floodplain trees. The Holocene. 10.1177/0959683620902217.
  • Panyushkina I.P., Macklin M.G., Toonen W.H.J., Meko D.M., 2019. Water supply and ancient society in the Lake Balkhash Basin: runoff variations along the historical Silk Road. In book: Socio-environmental dynamics along the historical Silk Road. Eds. L.E. Yang, H.-R. Bork, X. Fang, S. Mischke.  Springer Int. Publ., pp. 379-410.   
  • Panyushkina et al. 2018. Runoff variations in Lake Balkhash Basin, Central Asia, 1779 to 2015, inferred from tree rings. Climate Dynamics 51(7): 3161-3177.  doi: 10.1007/s00382-018-4072-z.
  • Damgaard et al. 2018. 137 ancient human genomes from across the Eurasian steppes. Nature, doi: 10.1038/s41586-018-0094-2.
  • Mühlemann et al. 2018.  Ancient Hepatitis B viruses from the Bronze Age to the Medieval Period. Nature, doi: 10.1038/s41586-018-0097-z.
  • Miyake F., Jull A.J.T., Panyushkina I.P., Wacker L., Salzer M., Baisan C., Lange T., Cruz R., Masuda K., Nakamura T. 2017. Large 14C excursion in 5480 BC indicates an abnormal sun in the mid-Holocene. PNAS Physical Sciences - Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences 114 (3), doi:10.1073/pnas.161314411
  • Panyushkina I.P., Leavitt, S.W., Mode W. 2017. A 1400-yr Bølling-Allerød    tree-ring record from Great Lakes region. Tree-Ring Research 72 (2): 102-112. doi: 10.3959/1536-1098-73.2.102
  • Panyushkina I.P., Mukhamadiev N.S., Lynch A.M., Ashikbaev N.Z., Arizpe A.H., O’Connor C.D., Abjanbaev D., Mengdibayeva G.Z., Sagitov A.O. 2017. Wild apple growth and climate change in southeast Kazakhstan.  Forests 8 (11), 406, doi:10.3390/f8110406. 
  • Miyake F., Jull A.J.T., Panyushkina I.P., Wacker L., Salzer M., Baisan C., Lange T., Cruz R., Masuda K., Nakamura T. 2017. Large 14C excursion in 5480 BC indicates an abnormal sun in the mid-Holocene. PNASPhysical Sciences - Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences 114 (3), 10.1073/pnas.1613144114
  • Miyake F., Masuda K., Nakamura T., Kimura K., Hakozaki M., Jull A.T., Lange T., Cruz R., Panyushkina I.P., Baisan C., Salzer M. 2017. Search for annual 14C excursions in the past. Radiocarbon 59 (2): 315-320. DOI: 10.1017/RDC.2016.5
  • Agafonov L.I., Meko D., Panyushkina I. P. 2016. Reconstruction of Ob River, Russia, from ring widths of floodplain trees. Journal of Hydrology 543: 198-217. DOI: 10.1016/j.jhydrol.2016.09.031
  • Panyushkina I.P., Shishov V.V., GrachevA.M., KnorreA.A., Kirdyanov A.V., Leavitt S.W., VaganovE.A., ChebykinE.P., ZhuchenkoN.A., Hughes M., 2016. Trends in elemental concentrations of tree rings from the Siberian Arctic. Tree-Ring Research 72 (2): 13-16.
  • Voelker et al.  2016.  A dynamic leaf gas-exchange strategy is conserved in woody plants under changing ambient CO2: evidence from carbon isotope discrimination in paleo and CO2 enrichment studies. Global Change Biology. doi: 10.1111/gcb.13102
  • Macklin M.G., Panyushkina I.P., Toonen W.H.J., Chang C., Tourtellotte P.A., Duller G.A., Wang H., Prins M., 2015. The influence of Late Pleistocene geomorphological inheritance and Holocene hydromorphic regimes on floodwater farming in the Talgar catchment, southeast Kazakhstan, Central Asia. Quaternary Science Review 129:85-95. 
  • Voelker et al. 2015. Deglacial hydroclimate for Midcontinental North America. Quaternary Research 83 (2):336-344, doi:10.1016/j.yqres.2015.01.001 
  • Jull A.J.T., Panyushkina I.P., Lange T.E., Kukarskih V.V., Clark K.J., Myglan V.S., Salzer M., Burr G.S., Leavitt S.L. 2014. Excursions in the 14C record at AD 774-775 from tree rings from Russia and America. Geophysical Research Letters 10.1002/2014GL059874
  • Panyushkina I.P., Leavitt S.W. 2012. Ancient boreal forests under the environmental instability of the glacial to post-glacial transition in the Great Lakes region (14,000-11,000 years BP), Can. J. of Forest Research 43: 1032-1039.  dx.doi.org/10.1139/cjfr-2012-0339
  • Panyushkina I.P. 2012. Climate-induced changes in population dynamics of Siberian Scythians (700-250 BC), in Climates, Landscapes, and Civilizations. Eds. L. Giosan et al., Geophys. Monogr. Ser. 198:145-154, AGU, Washington D. C.
  • Panyushkina I.P., Hughes M.K., Vaganov E.A., Munro M.A.R. 2003. Summer temperature in northeastern Siberia since 1642 reconstructed from tracheids dimensions and cell numbers of Larix cajanderi.  Canadian Journal of Forest Research 33: 1-10.