The data set presented represents 15 years of collection. It contains tree-ring width measurements from 64 sites of living trees and ten historical chronologies based on archaeological and construction wood up to year 572 CE, altogether 2909 tree-ring series and more than 450000 measured and cross-dated tree rings. It covers the vast territory of European Russia, including its forested northern and central parts, and the Northern Caucasus mountains. The potential use of these data include climatic reconstructions of regional and hemispheric scale, dendrochronological dating of historical and cultural wood, ecological and remote sensing studies.

The paper presents the results of an analysis of the spatial variability of pine tree-ring growth in the Solovetsky Islands. As a result of the field work, tree-ring network containing 14 dendrochronological pine sites in various habitats were developed. For each site, a local tree-ring width pine chronology (from 472 to 271 years) is obtained, representing pine growth features in different habitat conditions. A comparison between chronologies revealed synchronious growth of pine in various habitats in the late 17th, in the first half of the 18th and the beginning of the 19th centuries. The use of cluster analysis allowed to identify several groups of chronologies with similar characteristics. So, trees growing on swamps, on a sandy substrate and in a green-moss pine forest or in a mixed forest are allocated in separate clusters. This clustering is also confirmed by the results of a dendroclimatic analysis of local chronologies. It turned out that the increase in the pine’s growth in the mixed forest and in the green-moss pine forest depends on the July air temperature variation. Inside this group, samples from pine forests have a common feature – a positive relationship of growth with the precipitation of September. The only site located on the sands showed a different climatic signal than the other chronologies, namely, the dependence on the temperature of August.

This paper presents the results of a dendrochronological study of architectural monuments of the Solovetsky Archipelago based on tree-ring width (TRW) and the delta Blue Intensity (dBI) measured on Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris) and spruce (Pices abies). The study shows that pine was the principal construction timber on the Solovetsky Islands from the 15th to the 20th century, whereas spruce began to be used in building only from the 19th century. Most probably the majority of constructions was built from local timber, as evidenced by strong cross-dating statistics and similar climatic signals. Comparison of TRW and dBI datings demonstrates that all calendar dates are identical, although the dBI provides significantly stronger dating statistics. Comparison of dendrochronological dates with historical sources shows that, for many objects, we refined the timing of construction and renovations, as well as to identifed cases of secondary use of older timber. The main limitations to dating accuracy are the absence of outer rings in most samples and the difficulty of extensive sampling in some monuments. The inclusion of the floating chronologies constructed from the architectural timber in Solovetsky Archipelago allowed to improve the replication of the TRW and the dBI master chronologies and to extent them back in time up to the years 1185, respectively. The resulting long conifer chronologies for the Solovetsky Archipelago provide a basis for subsequent climate reconstructions in northwestern European Russia and a reliable tool for dating architectural and archaeological timber along the White Sea coast and in adjacent regions.