The dendroclimatic signal in Douglas-fir and ponderosa pine tree-ring chronologies from the southern Canadian Cordillera

A network of 53 ring-width chronologies has been developed from low-elevation stands of Douglas-fir (Pseudotsuga menziesii (Mirb.) Franco, n = 40) and ponderosa pine (Pinus ponderosa Dougl. ex P. & C. Laws., n = 13) in the southern Canadian Cordillera. Relationships between the chronologies and monthly, seasonal, and annualized climatic parameters (precipitation, temperature, and Palmer Drought Severity Index (PDSI)) were investigated using correlation analyses. The results indicate that tree growth at the sites is most strongly related to water availability dur- ing the growing season months. Although the response of the two species is similar, Douglas-fir show a slightly stron- ger correlation with seasonalized precipitation for the prior year and early summer whereas ponderosa pine correlate most strongly with current year and late (July) summer precipitation. Maximum correlations for both species occur with annual precipitation totals. The precipitation signal is slightly weaker in the more northerly Douglas-fir chronolo- gies in British Columbia and the higher elevation sites in southwestern Alberta. Correlations with available PDSI re- cords are generally comparable with those from precipitation variables, but the limited number of PDSI records and the availability of more proximal and better correlated precipitation records indicated that annual (summer-summer) precip- itation totals provide the best possibilities to develop regional, moisture-related proxy climate records from these data. Analysis of earlywood and latewood chronologies for 28 sites (mainly Douglas-fir) indicates that earlywood width is most consistently and strongly correlated with precipitation in the previous summer (July and August), and latewood width is more strongly related to precipitation in the current summer (June and July). The results of these analyses demonstrate considerable potential for reconstructing annual (and (or) summer) precipitation for sites across the region. Resume : Un reseau de 53 series dendrochronologiques a ete mis en place a partir de peuplements de Douglas (Pseu- dotsuga menziesii (Mirb.) Franco, n = 40) et de pin ponderosa (Pinus ponderosa Dougl. ex P. & C. Laws., n = 13)

[1]  Dendrochronologies in Southwestern Canada , 1947 .

[2]  M. A. Kohler,et al.  On the Use of Double-Mass Analysis for Testing the Consistency of Meteorological Records and for Making Required Adjustments , 1949 .

[3]  H. Fritts.  RELATIONSHIPS OF RING WIDTHS IN ARID-SITE CONIFERS TO VARIATIONS IN MONTHLY TEMPERATURE AND PRECIPITATION' , 1974 .

[4]  Harold C. Fritts,et al.  Tree Rings and Climate. , 1978 .

[5]  T. J. Blasing,et al.  A dendroclimatic reconstruction of annual precipitation amounts in Iowa since 1680 , 1981 .

[6]  Charles W. Stockton,et al.  Drought Recurrence in the Great Plains as Reconstructedfrom Long-Term Tree-Ring Records , 1983 .

[7]  W. Alley.  The Palmer Drought Severity Index: Limitations and Assumptions , 1984 .

[8]  T. Wigley,et al.  On the Average Value of Correlated Time Series, with Applications in Dendroclimatology and Hydrometeorology , 1984 .

[9]  E. Cook.  A time series analysis approach to tree-ring standardization , 1985 .

[10]  E. Olukayode Oladipo,et al.  A comparative performance analysis of three meteorological drought indices , 1985 .

[11]  L. Jozsa,et al.  Climatic reconstruction from tree rings at Banff , 1988 .

[12]  D. Stahle,et al.  North Carolina Climate Changes Reconstructed from Tree Rings: A.D. 372 to 1985 , 1988, Science.

[13]  M. K. Cleaveland,et al.  Texas drought history reconstructed and analyzed from 1698 to 1980 , 1988 .

[14]  李幼升,et al.  Ph , 1989 .

[15]  E. Cook,et al.  Methods of Dendrochronology - Applications in the Environmental Sciences , 1991 .

[16]  Keith R. Briffa,et al.  Basic chronology statistics and assessment , 1990 .

[17]  G. Jacoby,et al.  A 1000-year record of winter precipitation from northwestern New Mexico, USA: a reconstruction from tree-rings and its relation to El Niño and the Southern Oscillation , 1991 .

[18]  H. Diaz,et al.  Climate Chronologies. (Book Reviews: El Nino. Historical and Paleoclimatic Aspects of the Southern Oscillation.) , 1993 .

[19]  Keith R. Briffa,et al.  Interpreting High-Resolution Proxy Climate Data — The Example of Dendroclimatology , 1995 .

[20]  G. MacDonald,et al.  A Dendroclimatic Reconstruction of Annual Precipitation on the Western Canadian Prairies since A.D. 1505 from Pinus flexilis James , 1995, Quaternary Research.

[21]  David L. Peterson,et al.  Growth response of subalpine fir (Abies lasiocarpa) to climate in the Olympic Mountains, Washington, USA , 1995 .

[22]  Douglas-Fir Beetle , 1996 .

[23]  Fritz H. Schweingruber,et al.  Tree-ring based reconstruction of summer temperatures at the Columbia Icefield, Alberta, Canada, AD 1073-1983 , 1997 .

[24]  J. Metcalfe,et al.  Rainfall Measurement in Canada: Changing Observational Methodsand Archive Adjustment Procedures , 1997 .

[25]  Lucie A. Vincent,et al.  A Technique for the Identification of Inhomogeneities in Canadian Temperature Series , 1998 .

[26]  Edward R. Cook,et al.  Experimental Dendroclimatic Reconstruction of the Southern Oscillation. , 1998 .

[27]  A. B. Beaudoin,et al.  RECENT ENVIRONMENTAL CHANGE IN THE SOUTHWESTERN CANADIAN PLAINS , 1998 .

[28]  Éva Mekis,et al.  Rehabilitation and Analysis of Canadian Daily Precipitation Time Series , 1999, Data, Models and Analysis.

[29]  E. Cook,et al.  Drought Reconstructions for the Continental United States , 1999 .

[30]  Lucie A. Vincent,et al.  Canadian historical and homogeneous temperature datasets for climate change analyses , 1999 .

[31]  Qi Hu,et al.  EFFECTS OF TEMPERATURE ANOMALIES ON THE PALMER DROUGHT SEVERITY INDEX IN THE CENTRAL UNITED STATES , 2000 .

[32]  The Development of a Moisture-Stressed Tree-Ring Chronology Network for the Southern Canadian Cordillera , 2001 .

[33]  David M. Meko,et al.  Pilot study of latewood‐width of conifers as an indicator of variability of summer rainfall in the North American monsoon region , 2001 .

[34]  E. Watson,et al.  Dendroclimatic reconstruction of precipitation for sites in the southern Canadian Rockies , 2001 .

[35]  B. Luckman,et al.  Extracting a paleotemperature record from Picea engelmannii tree-line sites in the central Canadian Rockies , 2001 .

[36]  B. Luckman,et al.  Dendroclimatic reconstruction of maximum summer temperatures from upper treeline sites in Interior British Columbia, Canada , 2003 .