Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-rdxmf Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-26T02:17:44.793Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Tree-ring derived Little Ice Age temperature trends from the central British Columbia Coast Mountains, Canada

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 September 2012

Kara J. Pitman  and
Dan J. Smith
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Most glaciers in the British Columbia Coast Mountains reached their maximum Holocene extent during the Little Ice Age. Early- and late-Little Ice Age intervals of expansion and retreat fluctuations describe a mass-balance response to changing climates. Although existing dendroclimatic records provide insights into these climatic fluctuations over the last 400 yr, their short durations prohibit evaluation of early-Little Ice Age climate variability. To extend the duration of these records, submerged coarse woody debris salvaged from a high-elevation lake was cross-dated to living chronologies. The resulting chronology provides the opportunity to reconstruct a regional June–July air-temperature anomaly record extending from AD 1225 to 2010. The reconstruction shows that the intervals AD 1350–1420, 1475–1550, 1625–1700 and 1830–1940 characterized distinct periods of below-average June–July temperature followed by periods of above-average temperature. Our reconstruction provides the first annually resolved insights into high-elevation climates spanning the Little Ice Age in this region and indicates that Little Ice Age moraine stabilization corresponds to persistent intervals of warmer-than-average temperatures. We conclude that coarse woody debris submerged in high-elevation lakes has considerable potential for developing lengthy proxy climate records, and we recommend that researchers focus attention on this largely ignored paleoclimatic archive.

Keywords

DendrochronologyDendroclimatologyTree-ringsCoarse woody debrisSubmergedLittle Ice AgeCoast MountainsBritish ColumbiaMountain hemlock
Type
Articles
Information
Quaternary Research , Volume 78 , Issue 3 , November 2012 , pp. 417 - 426
Copyright
University of Washington

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Allen, S.M., and Smith, D.J. Late Holocene glacial activity of Bridge Glacier, British Columbia Coast Mountains. Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences 44, (2007). 1753–1773.Google Scholar
Baer, A.J. Bella Coola–Laredo Sound map-areas, British Columbia. Memoir 372, (1973). Geological Survey of Canada, Ottawa. 122 Google Scholar
Barclay, D.J., Wiles, G.C., and Calkin, P.E. Holocene glacier fluctuations in Alaska. Quaternary Science Reviews 28, (2009). 2034–2048.Google Scholar
Bitz, C.M., and Battisti, D.S. Interannual to decadal variability in climate and the glacier mass balance in Washington, Western Canada, and Alaska. Journal of Climate 12, (1999). 3181–3196.Google Scholar
Briffa, K.R. Annual climate variability in the Holocene: interpreting the message of ancient trees. Quaternary Science Reviews 18, (2000). 87–105.Google Scholar
Briffa, K.R., Jones, P., Schweingruber, R., and Osborn, T. Influence of volcanic eruptions on Northern Hemisphere summer temperature over the past 600 years. Nature 393, (1998). 450–454.Google Scholar
Brooke, R.C., Peterson, E.B., and Krajina, V.J. The subalpine mountain hemlock zone. Ecology of Western North America 2, (1970). 148–349.Google Scholar
Büntgen, U., Frank, D.C., Hievergelt, D., and Esper, J. Summer temperature variations in the European Alps, A.D. 755–2004. Journal of Climate 19, (2006). 5606–5623.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Burrows, C.J., and Burrows, V.L. Procedures for the study of snow avalanche chronology using growth layers of woody plants. University of Colorado, Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research, Occasional Paper 23, (1976). 1–54.Google Scholar
Carrara, P.E. The determination of snow avalanche frequency through tree-ring analysis and historical records at Ophir, Colorado. Geological Society of America Bulletin 90, (1979). 773–780.Google Scholar
Clague, J.J., Menounos, B.H., Osborn, G., Luckman, B., and Koch, J. Nomenclature and resolution in Holocene glacier chronologies. Quaternary Science Reviews 28, (2009). 2231–2238.Google Scholar
Climate Research Unit http://www.cru.uea.ac.uk/cru/data/temperature/ (2010). accessed 1 October 2010 Google Scholar
Colenutt, M.E., (2000). Climate reconstruction in the southern Canadian Rockies using tree-ring data from Alpine Larch. PhD Thesis, University of Western Ontario, .Google Scholar
Colenutt, M.E., and Luckman, B.H. Dendroclimatic characteristics of Alpine Larch (Larix lyallii, Parl) at treeline sites in western Canada. Dean, J.S., Meko, D.M., and Swetnam, T.W. Tree Rings, Environment and Humanity. (1996). Radiocarbon, Tuscan. 143–154.Google Scholar
Cook, E.R., and Krusic, P.J. Program ARSTAN: a tree-ring standardization program based on detrending and autoregressive time series modeling, with interactive graphics. (2005). Columbia University, Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, New York.Google Scholar
Cook, E.R., Briffa, K., Shiyatov, S., and Mazepa, V. Tree-ring standardization and growth-trend estimation. Cook, E.R., and Kairiukstis, L.A. Methods of Dendrochronology: Applications in the Environmental Sciences. (1990). Kluwer Academic Publishers, Boston. 104–122.Google Scholar
D'Arrigo, R., Wilson, R., and Jacoby, G. On the long-term context for late 20th century warming. Journal of Geophysical Research 111, (2006). D03103 http://dx.doi.org/10.1029/2005JD006352 Google Scholar
Daniels, L.D., Dobry, J., Klinka, K., and Feller, M.C. Determining year of death of logs and snags of Thuja plicata in southwestern coastal British Columbia. Canadian Journal of Forest Research 27, (1997). 1132–1141.Google Scholar
Davis, T., Menounos, B., and Osborn, G. Holocene and latest Pleistocene alpine glacier fluctuations: a global perspective. Quaternary Science Reviews 28, (2009). 2021–2033.Google Scholar
Environment Canada Canadian Climate Normals 1971–2000. http://climate.weatheroffice.gc.ca/climate_normals/index_e.html(2010). accessed 25 September 2010 Google Scholar
Eronen, M., Zetterberg, K.R., Lindholm, M., Merilainen, J., and Timonen, M. The supra-long Scots pine tree-ring record for Finnish Lapland: part 1, chronology construction and initial inferences. The Holocene 12, (2002). 673–680.Google Scholar
Esper, J., Cook, E., and Schweingruber, F. Low-frequency signals in long tree-ring chronologies and the reconstruction of past temperature variability. Science 295, (2002). 2250–2253.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Fritts, H.C. Tree Rings and Climate. (1976). Academic Press, New York. 567 Google Scholar
Gedalof, Z., and Smith, D.J. Interdecadal climate variability and regime-scale shifts in Pacific North America. Geophysical Research Letters 28, (2001). 1515–1518.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gedalof, Z., and Smith, D.J. Dendroclimatic response of mountain hemlock (Tsuga mertensiana) in Pacific North America. Canadian Journal of Forest Research 31, (2001). 322–332.Google Scholar
Glen, D.M. Tree-ring dating of snow avalanches. Journal of Colorado-Wyoming Academy of Sciences 12, (1974). 1–46.Google Scholar
Gordon, G.A. Verification of dendroclimatic reconstructions. Hughes, M.K., Kelly, P.M., Pilcher, J.R., and LaMarche, V.C. Climate from Tree Rings. (1982). Cambridge University Press, Cambridge. 58–61.Google Scholar
Grabner, M., Wimmer, R., Gindi, W., and Nicolussi, K. A 3474-year alpine tree-ring record from the Dachstein, Austria. International Conference of Tree Ring and People, Davos. (2001). Google Scholar
Graumlich, L.J., and Brubaker, L.B. Reconstruction of annual temperature (1590–1979) for Longmire, Washington, derived from tree rings. Quaternary Research 25, (1986). 223–234.Google Scholar
Grissino-Mayer, H.D. Evaluating crossdating accuracy: a manual and tutorial for the computer program COFECHA. Tree-Ring Research 57, (2001). 205–221.Google Scholar
Gunnarson, B.E. Lake level changes indicated by dendrochronology on subfossil pine, Jämtland, Central Scandinavian Mountains, Sweden. Arctic, Antarctic, and Alpine Research 33, (2001). 274–281.Google Scholar
Guyette, R.P., and Cole, W.G. Age characteristics of coarse woody debris (Pinus strobus) in a lake littoral zone. Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences 56, (1999). 496–505.Google Scholar
Guyette, R.P., and Stambaugh, M.C. Post-oak scars as a function of diameter, growth, and tree age. Forest Ecology and Management 198, (2003). 183–193.Google Scholar
Hart, S.J., Smith, D.J., and Clague, J.J. A multi-species dendroclimatic reconstruction of streamflow in the Chilko River, Canada. Hydrological Processes 24, (2010). 2752–2761.Google Scholar
Harvey, J., Smith, D.J., in press. Lichenometric dating of Little Ice Age glacier activity in the central British Columbia Coast Mountains. Geografiska Annaler. 10.1111/j.1468-0459.2012.00474.x.Google Scholar
Holland, S.S. Landforms of British Columbia: A physiographic outline. British Columbia Department of Mines and Petroleum Resources Bulletin 48, (1976). 138 Google Scholar
Holmes, R.L. Computer assisted quality control in tree-ring dating and measurement. Tree-Ring Bulletin 43, (1983). 69–78.Google Scholar
Kendrew, W.G., and Kerr, D. The Climate of British Columbia and Yukon Territory. (1956). Queen's Printer and Controller of Stationary, Ontario. 222 Google Scholar
Klinka, K., and Chourmouzis, C. The Mountain Hemlock Zone of British Columbia. (2001). Scienta Silvica: Forest Science Department, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, B.C..Google Scholar
Koch, J., Clague, J.J., and Osborn, G.D. Glacier fluctuations during the past millennium in Garibaldi Provincial Park, southern Coast Mountains, British Columbia. Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences 44, (2007). 1215–1233.Google Scholar
Koehler, L., and Smith, D.J. Late-Holocene glacial activity in Manatee Valley, southern Coast Mountains, British Columbia, Canada. Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences 48, (2011). 603–618.Google Scholar
Kramer, P.J., and Kozlowski, T.T. Physiology of Trees. (1960). McGraw-Hill Book Company, New York. 642 Google Scholar
Labeyrie, L., Cole, J.E., Alverson, K., and Stocker, T. The history of climate dynamics. Alverson, K., Bradley, R.S., and Pederson, T. Paleoclimate, Global Change and the Future. (2003). Springer, Berlin. 33–61.Google Scholar
Larocque, S.J., and Smith, D.J. Little Ice Age glacial activity in the Mt. Waddington area, British Columbia Coast Mountains, Canada. Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences 40, (2003). 1413–1436.Google Scholar
Larocque, S.J., and Smith, D.J. ‘Little Ice Age’ proxy glacier mass balance records reconstructed from tree rings in the Mt Waddington area, British Columbia Coast Mountains, Canada. The Holocene 15, (2005). 748–757.Google Scholar
Larocque, S.J., and Smith, D.J. A dendroclimatological reconstruction of climate since AD 1700 in the Mt. Waddington area, British Columbia Coast Mountains, Canada. Dendrochronologia 22, (2005). 93–106.Google Scholar
Laroque, C.P., and Smith, D.J. Tree-ring analysis of yellow-cedar (Chamaecyparis nootkatensis) on Vancouver Island, British Columbia. Canadian Journal of Forest Research 29, (1999). 115–123.Google Scholar
Laroque, C.P., and Smith, D.J. Radial growth forecasts for five high-elevation conifer species on Vancouver Island, British Columbia. Forest Ecology and Management 183, (2003). 313–325.Google Scholar
Laroque, C.P., Lewis, D.H., and Smith, D.J. Treeline dynamics on southern Vancouver Island, British Columbia. Western Geography 10, (2000). 43–63.Google Scholar
Larsson, L.A. CDendro–Cybis Dendro Dating Program. (2003). Cybis Elektronik & Data Ab, Saltsjobaden, Sweden.Google Scholar
Luckman, B.H. Glacier fluctuation and tree-ring records for the last millennium in the Canadian Rockies. Quaternary Science Reviews 12, (1993). 441–450.Google Scholar
Luckman, B.H. Developing a proxy climate record for the last 300 years in the Canadian Rockies: some problems and opportunities. Climate Change 36, (1997). 455–476.Google Scholar
Luckman, B.H. The Little Ice Age in the Canadian Rockies. Geomorphology 32, (2000). 357–384.Google Scholar
Luckman, B.H., and Wilson, R.J.S. Summer temperatures in the Canadian Rockies during the last millennium: a revised record. Climate Dynamics 24, (2005). 131–144.Google Scholar
Mann, M., Bradley, R., and Hughes, M.K. Northern Hemisphere temperatures during the past millennium: inferences, uncertainties, and limitations. Geophysical Research Letters 26, (1999). 759–762.Google Scholar
Mantua, N.J., and Hare, S.R. The Pacific decadal oscillation. Journal of Oceanography 58, (2002). 35–44.Google Scholar
Means, J.E. Tsuga mertensiana (Bong.) Carr. Mountain hemlock. Burns, R.M., and Honkala, B.H. Silvics of North America. Vol. 2. Agriculture Handbook. (1990). Department of Agriculture, Washington. 1279–1306.Google Scholar
Menounos, B., Osborn, G., Clague, J., and Luckman, B. Late Pleistocene and Holocene glacier fluctuations in western Canada. Quaternary Science Reviews 28, (2009). 2049–2074.Google Scholar
Moore, R.D., Spittlehouse, D., Whitfield, P., and Stahl, K. Weather and climate. Pike, R.G., Redding, T.E., Moore, R.D., Winkler, R.D., and Bladon, K.D. Compendium of Forest Hydrology and Geomorphology in British Columbia Volume 1 of 2. (2010). Ministry of Forest and Range, Forest Science Program, British Columbia. 47–84.Google Scholar
Parish, R., and Antos, J.A. Structure and dynamics of an ancient montane forest in coastal British Columbia. Oecologia 141, (2004). 562–576.Google Scholar
Peterson, D.W., and Peterson, L.W. Mountain Hemlock growth responds to climatic variability at annual and decadal time scales. Ecology 82, (2001). 3330–3345.Google Scholar
Raspopov, O.M., Dergachev, V.A., Esper, J., Kozyreva, O.V., Frank, D., Ogurtsov, M., Kolstrom, T., and Shao, X. The influence of the de Vries ( 200-year) solar cycle on climate variations: results from the Central Asian Mountains and their global link. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology 259, (2008). 6–16.Google Scholar
Regent Instruments Inc. WinDENDRO: An Image Analysis System for Tree-Rings Analysis. (2008). Quebec Google Scholar
Reyes, A.V., Wiles, G.C., Smith, D.J., Barclay, D.J., Allen, S., Jackson, S., Larocque, S., Laxton, S., Lewis, D., Calkin, P.E., and Clague, J.J. Expansion of alpine glaciers in Pacific North America in the first millennium A.D.. Geology 34, (2006). 57–60.Google Scholar
Robertson, A., Overpeck, J., Rind, D., Mosley-Thompson, E., Zielinski, G., Lean, J., Penner, J., Tgen, I., and Healy, R. Hypothesized climate forcing time series for the last 500 years. Geophysical Research 106, (2001). 14783–14803.Google Scholar
Rochefort, R.M., Little, R.L., Woodward, A., and Peterson, D.L. Changes in sub-alpine tree distribution in western North America: a review of climatic and other causal factors. The Holocene 4, (1994). 89–100.Google Scholar
Ryder, J.M., and Thomson, B. Neoglaciation in the southern Coast Mountains, British Columbia: chronology prior to the Neoglacial maximum. Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences 24, (1986). 1294–1301.Google Scholar
Shroder, J.F. Dendrogeomorphology: review and new techniques of tree-ring dating. Progress in Physical Geography 4, (1980). 161–188.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Smith, D.J., and Desloges, J.R. Little Ice Age history of Tzeetsaytsul Glacier, Tweedsmuir Provincial Park, British Columbia. Géographie physique et Quaternaire 54, (2000). 135–141.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Smith, D.J., and Laroque, C.P. Mountain hemlock growth dynamics on Vancouver Island. Northwest Science 72, (1998). 67–70.Google Scholar
Starheim, C.C.A., Smith, D.J., Prowse, T., in press. Dendrohydroclimate reconstructions of July–August runoff for two nival-regime rivers in west central British Columbia. Hydrological Processes. 10.1002/hyp.9257.Google Scholar
Stokes, M.A., and Smiley, T.L. An Introduction to Tree-Ring Dating. (1968). The University of Chicago Press, Chicago. 68 Google Scholar
Torrence, C., and Compo, G.C. A practical guide to wavelet analysis. Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society 79, (1998). 61–78.Google Scholar
Trouet, V., and Taylor, A.H. Multi-century variability in the Pacific North American circulation pattern reconstructed from tree rings. Climate Dynamics 35, (2010). 953–963.Google Scholar
Turner, J.K., and Gyakum, J.R. Trends in Canadian surface temperature variability in the context of climate change. Atmosphere-Ocean 48, (2010). 147–162.Google Scholar
Walker, I.R., and Pellatt, M.G. Climate change and ecosystem response in the northern Columbia River basin — a paleoenvironmental perspective. Environmental Reviews 16, (2008). 113–140.Google Scholar
Whitfield, P.H., Moore, R.D., Fleming, I.W., and Zawadzki, A. Pacific Decadal Oscillation and the hydroclimatology of western Canada — review and prospects. Canadian Water Resources Journal 35, (2010). 1–28.Google Scholar
Wigley, T.M.L., Briffa, K.R., and Jones, P.D. One the average value of correlated time series, with applications in dendroclimatology and hydrometeorology. Journal of Climate and Applied Meteorology 23, (1984). 201–213.Google Scholar
Wilson, R., Wiles, G., D'Arrigo, R.D., and Zweck, C. Cycles and shifts: 1300 years if multi-decadal temperatures variability in the Gulf of Alaska. Climate Dynamics 28, (2007). 425–440.Google Scholar
Wood, C.J. Introduction. Wood, C.J. British Columbia the Pacific Province: Geographical Essays. (2001). Western Geographical Press, Victoria. 1–13.Google Scholar
Wood, L.J., Smith, D.J., and Demuth, M.N. Extending the Place Glacier mass-balance record to AD 1585, using tree rings and wood density. Quaternary Research 76, (2011). 305–313.Google Scholar
Woodward, A., Schreiner, E.G., and Silsbee, D.G. Climate, geography, and tree establishment in subalpine meadows of the Olympic Mountains, Washington, U.S.A.. Arctic and Alpine Research 27, (1995). 217–225.Google Scholar
Yarnal, B. Relationships between synoptic-scale atmospheric circulation and glacier mass balance in south-western Canada during the international hydrological decade, 1965–74. Journal of Glaciology 30, (1984). 188–198.Google Scholar
Zetterberg, P., Eronen, M., and Briffa, K.R. Evidence on climatic variability and prehistoric human activities between 165 B.C. and A.D. 1400 derived from subfossil Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris) found in a lake in Utsjoki, Northernmost Finland. Bulletin of the Geological Society of Finland 66, (1994). 102–124.Google Scholar
Zhang, Q., and Hebda, R.J. Abrupt climate change and variability in the past four millennia of the southern Vancouver Island, Canada. Geophysical Research Letters 32, (2005). 1–4.Google Scholar
Zhang, X., Vincent, L.A., Hogg, W.D., and Niitsoo, A. Temperature and precipitation trends in Canada during the twentieth century. Atmosphere-Ocean 38, (2000). 395–429.Google Scholar