Jan Esper

30.0k total citations · 7 hit papers
286 papers, 17.8k citations indexed

About

Jan Esper is a scholar working on Atmospheric Science, Global and Planetary Change and Nature and Landscape Conservation. According to data from OpenAlex, Jan Esper has authored 286 papers receiving a total of 17.8k indexed citations (citations by other indexed papers that have themselves been cited), including 264 papers in Atmospheric Science, 218 papers in Global and Planetary Change and 55 papers in Nature and Landscape Conservation. Recurrent topics in Jan Esper's work include Tree-ring climate responses (251 papers), Plant Water Relations and Carbon Dynamics (190 papers) and Geology and Paleoclimatology Research (124 papers). Jan Esper is often cited by papers focused on Tree-ring climate responses (251 papers), Plant Water Relations and Carbon Dynamics (190 papers) and Geology and Paleoclimatology Research (124 papers). Jan Esper collaborates with scholars based in Germany, Switzerland and Czechia. Jan Esper's co-authors include David Frank, Ulf Büntgen, Fritz Hans Schweingruber, Edward R. Cook, Jürg Luterbacher, Valérie Trouet, Rob Wilson, Paul J. Krusic, Kerstin Treydte and Willy Tegel and has published in prestigious journals such as Nature, Science and Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

In The Last Decade

Jan Esper

279 papers receiving 17.1k citations

Hit Papers

5 papers align trajectories

What are hit papers?

Hit papers significantly outperform the citation benchmark for their cohort. A paper qualifies if it has ≥500 total citations, achieves ≥1.5× the top-1% citation threshold for papers in the same subfield and year (this is the minimum needed to enter the top 1%, not the average within it), or reaches the top citation threshold in at least one of its specific research topics.

Low-Frequency Signals in Long Tree-Ring Chronologies for Reconstructing Past Temperature Variability

2002 1.1k citations Jan Esper, Edward R. Cook et al. profile →
2500 Years of European Climate Variability and Human Susceptibility

2011 958 citations Ulf Büntgen, Kurt Nicolussi et al. profile →
Persistent Positive North Atlantic Oscillation Mode Dominated the Medieval Climate Anomaly

2009 863 citations Valérie Trouet, Jan Esper et al. profile →
Cooling and societal change during the Late Antique Little Ice Age from 536 to around 660 AD

2016 526 citations Ulf Büntgen, Fredrik Charpentier Ljungqvist et al. profile →
Recent European drought extremes beyond Common Era background variability

2021 272 citations Ulf Büntgen, Otmar Urban et al. profile →
Long-term decrease in Asian monsoon rainfall and abrupt climate change events over the past 6,700 years

2021 159 citations Valérie Trouet, Fredrik Charpentier Ljungqvist et al. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences profile →
2023 summer warmth unparalleled over the past 2,000 years

2024 97 citations Jan Esper, Max C. A. Torbenson et al. Nature profile →

Peers — A (Enhanced Table)

Peers by citation overlap · career bar shows stage (early→late) cites · hero ref

Name	h						Papers	Cites
Jan Esper Germany	74	15.1k	12.0k	3.6k	1.4k	1.4k	286	17.8k
David Frank Switzerland	77	14.1k 0.9×	14.0k 1.2×	5.0k 1.4×	886 0.6×	2.2k 1.6×	185	18.7k
Keith R. Briffa United Kingdom	73	18.9k 1.2×	17.6k 1.5×	3.8k 1.1×	1.3k 0.9×	2.0k 1.4×	145	23.7k
Ulf Büntgen Switzerland	68	11.1k 0.7×	9.2k 0.8×	3.9k 1.1×	1.3k 0.9×	1.3k 1.0×	366	15.5k
Malcolm K. Hughes United States	48	10.6k 0.7×	8.2k 0.7×	2.2k 0.6×	1.1k 0.8×	1.5k 1.1×	118	12.9k
Edward R. Cook United States	81	23.5k 1.6×	23.0k 1.9×	5.2k 1.5×	1.4k 1.0×	3.0k 2.2×	273	29.8k
Jed O. Kaplan Switzerland	56	8.3k 0.5×	7.7k 0.6×	1.8k 0.5×	1.8k 1.3×	3.6k 2.6×	149	15.3k
Fritz Hans Schweingruber Switzerland	68	13.5k 0.9×	11.3k 0.9×	5.3k 1.5×	982 0.7×	1.3k 0.9×	209	17.3k
Patrick J. Bartlein United States	71	12.3k 0.8×	7.3k 0.6×	2.9k 0.8×	2.1k 1.5×	4.5k 3.3×	175	18.1k
Rosanne D’Arrigo United States	69	11.5k 0.8×	10.2k 0.9×	2.3k 0.6×	471 0.3×	1.1k 0.8×	177	13.2k
Julio L. Betancourt United States	60	6.5k 0.4×	8.9k 0.7×	3.1k 0.9×	1.9k 1.4×	5.0k 3.6×	156	17.5k

Countries citing papers authored by Jan Esper

Since Specialization

Citations

This map shows the geographic impact of Jan Esper's research. It shows the number of citations coming from papers published by authors working in each country. You can also color the map by specialization and compare the number of citations received by Jan Esper with the expected number of citations based on a country's size and research output (numbers larger than one mean the country cites Jan Esper more than expected).

Fields of papers citing papers by Jan Esper

Since Specialization

Physical SciencesHealth SciencesLife SciencesSocial Sciences

This network shows the impact of papers produced by Jan Esper. Nodes represent research fields, and links connect fields that are likely to share authors. Colored nodes show fields that tend to cite the papers produced by Jan Esper. The network helps show where Jan Esper may publish in the future.

Co-authorship network of co-authors of Jan Esper

This figure shows the co-authorship network connecting the top 25 collaborators of Jan Esper. A scholar is included among the top collaborators of Jan Esper based on the total number of citations received by their joint publications. Widths of edges represent the number of papers authors have co-authored together. Node borders signify the number of papers an author published with Jan Esper. Jan Esper is excluded from the visualization to improve readability, since they are connected to all nodes in the network.

All Works

Sort: Min cites: Since: Top N: Style:

20 of 20 papers shown

Urban, Otmar, Alexander V. Kirdyanov, Ronny Friedrich, et al.. (2025). Tree‐Ring Stable Isotopes Reveal a Hydroclimate Shift in Eastern England Around 4.2 ka Ago. Geophysical Research Letters. 52(7). 2 indexed citations

Büntgen, Ulf, Edurne Martínez del Castillo, Ernesto Tejedor, et al.. (2025). Climate signal age effects in Pinus uncinata tree-ring density data from the Spanish Pyrenees. Trees. 39(1). 23–23.

Fang, Keyan, Jing M. Chen, Sergio Rossi, et al.. (2025). Climate-driven patterns of global tree longevity. Communications Earth & Environment. 6(1).

Esper, Jan, Frederick Reinig, Max C. A. Torbenson, et al.. (2025). Pan-alpine summer temperatures since 742 CE. Dendrochronologia. 94. 126432–126432. 1 indexed citations

Oppenheimer, Clive, et al.. (2025). The 2025 Blatten disaster in the Swiss Alps followed exceptional warming and highlights the vulnerability of people and heritage in glaciated landscapes. Communications Earth & Environment. 6(1).

Arzac, Alberto, et al.. (2024). Tree-ring blue intensity measurements from treeline sites in the Ural Mountains exhibit a strong summer temperature signal. Dendrochronologia. 88. 126267–126267. 3 indexed citations

Torbenson, Max C. A., Alexander V. Kirdyanov, Jan Esper, et al.. (2024). Methodological constrains of tree-ring stable isotope chronologies. Quaternary Science Reviews. 340. 108861–108861. 1 indexed citations

Harley, Grant L., Justin T. Maxwell, Shelly A. Rayback, et al.. (2024). A 561-yr (1461-2022 CE) summer temperature reconstruction for Mid-Atlantic-Northeast USA shows connections to volcanic forcing and atmospheric circulation. Climatic Change. 177(9). 4 indexed citations

Kirdyanov, Alexander V., Alberto Arzac, Anatoly Prokushkin, et al.. (2024). Assessment of non-stationary tree growth responses in the forest-tundra and southern taiga of central Siberia. Agricultural and Forest Meteorology. 360. 110296–110296. 1 indexed citations

10.

Xu, Guobao, Isabel Dorado‐Liñán, Lara Klippel, et al.. (2024). Jet stream controls on European climate and agriculture since 1300 ce. Nature. 634(8034). 600–608. 12 indexed citations

11.

Ziaco, Emanuele, et al.. (2024). A machine learning approach to fill gaps in dendrometer data. Trees. 38(6). 1557–1567. 1 indexed citations

12.

Reinig, Frederick, Oliver Konter, Ronny Friedrich, et al.. (2023). Multi-proxy crossdating extends the longest high-elevation tree-ring chronology from the Mediterranean. Dendrochronologia. 79. 126085–126085. 5 indexed citations

13.

Björklund, Jesper, Kristina Seftigen, Markus Stoffel, et al.. (2023). Fennoscandian tree-ring anatomy shows a warmer modern than medieval climate. Nature. 620(7972). 97–103. 42 indexed citations

14.

Greule, Markus, et al.. (2022). Climate signals in stable carbon and hydrogen isotopes of lignin methoxy groups from southern German beech trees. Climate of the past. 18(8). 1849–1866. 7 indexed citations

15.

Esper, Jan, Dana F.C. Riechelmann, & Steffen Holzkämper. (2020). Circumferential and Longitudinal δ13C Variability in a Larix decidua Trunk from the Swiss Alps. Forests. 11(1). 117–117. 7 indexed citations

16.

Sangüesa‐Barreda, Gabriel, Jan Esper, Ulf Büntgen, et al.. (2020). Climate–human interactions contributed to historical forest recruitment dynamics in Mediterranean subalpine ecosystems. Global Change Biology. 26(9). 4988–4997. 10 indexed citations

17.

Hartl, Claudia, Ulf Büntgen, Jason E. Smerdon, et al.. (2017). Temperature Covariance in Tree Ring Reconstructions and Model Simulations Over the Past Millennium. Geophysical Research Letters. 44(18). 9458–9469. 29 indexed citations

18.

Esper, Jan, Ulf Büntgen, David Frank, Daniel Nievergelt, & Andrew M. Liebhold. (2006). 1200 years of regular outbreaks in alpine insects. Proceedings of the Royal Society B Biological Sciences. 274(1610). 671–679. 172 indexed citations

19.

Stenseth, Nils Chr., Noelle I. Samia, Hildegunn Viljugrein, et al.. (2006). Plague dynamics are driven by climate variation. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 103(35). 13110–13115. 195 indexed citations

20.

Esper, Jan, Kerstin Treydte, Holger Gärtner, & Burkhard Neuwirth. (2001). A tree ring reconstruction of climatic extreme years since 1427 AD for Western Central Asia. Journal of Palaeosciences. 50((1-3)). 141–152. 39 indexed citations

Rankless uses publication and citation data sourced from OpenAlex, an open and comprehensive bibliographic database. While OpenAlex provides broad and valuable coverage of the global research landscape, it—like all bibliographic datasets—has inherent limitations. These include incomplete records, variations in author disambiguation, differences in journal indexing, and delays in data updates. As a result, some metrics and network relationships displayed in Rankless may not fully capture the entirety of a scholar's output or impact.

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