A 250-year perspective on high spring flows and climatic drivers in eastern boreal Canada from flood rings

Flood severity in eastern boreal Canada has increased in recent decades (1990–2020) and is likely to increase with projected climate change in the 21st century. The lack of instrumental hydroclimatic data makes the study of paleoenvironmental indicators necessary to identify historical trends and long-term hydroclimatic trajectories. However, in boreal environment where water is not a limiting factor to tree growth, using tree ring width as a single proxy might not allow to capture a complete spectrum of hydrological variability. This project presents recent applications and developments of the ‘flood ring’ anatomical markers for dendrohydrological reconstructions in boreal environments and aimed (1) to reconstruct and study the natural historical variability of spring floods, (2) to determine the spatial coherence patterns between flood onset and climatic forcings, and (3) to identify long-term trends in regional runoff to project forecast trajectories of spring floods and their meteorological determinants under different climate change scenarios.