Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-q99xh Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-23T19:11:48.563Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Tree-ring growth curves as sources of climatic information

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Mukhtar M. Naurzbaev ,
Malcolm K. Hughes  and
Eugene A. Vaganov
Mukhtar M. Naurzbaev
Affiliation:
Institute of Forest, Siberian Branch, Russian Academy of Sciences, Akademgorodok, 660036 Krasnoyarsk, Russia
Malcolm K. Hughes*
Affiliation:
Laboratory of Tree-Ring Research, University of Arizona, Tucson AZ 85721, USA
Eugene A. Vaganov
Affiliation:
Institute of Forest, Siberian Branch, Russian Academy of Sciences, Akademgorodok, 660036 Krasnoyarsk, Russia
*
*Corresponding author. Laboratory of Tree-Ring Research, University of Arizona, West Stadium 105, Tucson AZ 85721. Fax: +1 520 621 8229. E-mail address:[email protected](M.K. Hughes).
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Regional growth curves (RGCs) have been recently used to provide a new basis for removing nonclimatic trend from tree-ring data. Here we propose a different use for RGCs and explore their properties along two transects, one meridional and the other elevational. RGCs consisting of mean ring width plotted against cambial age were developed for larch samples from 34 sites along a meridional transect (55–72°N) in central Siberia, and for 24 sites on an elevational gradient (1120 and 2350 m a.s.l.) in Tuva and neighboring Mongolia at approximately 51°N. There are systematic gradients of the parameters of the RGCs, such as I0-maximum tree-ring width near pith, and Imin, the asymptotic value of tree-ring width in old trees. They are smaller at higher latitude and elevation. Annual mean temperature and mean May–September temperature are highly correlated with latitude here, and hence RGC parameters are correlated with these climatic variables. Correlations with precipitation are more complex, and contradictory between meridional and elevational transects. The presence of a similar gradient in the elevational transect is consistent with temperature being the causal factor for both gradients, rather than, for example, latitude-dependent patterns of seasonal photoperiod change. Taking ring measurements from collections of relict and subfossil wood, the RGC–latitude and RGC–temperature relationships are used to estimate paleo-temperatures on centennial time scales. These estimates are consistent with earlier "traditional" dendroclimatic approaches, and with independent information on the northern extent of forest growth in the early mid-Holocene. It may be possible to use this same approach to make estimates of century-scale paleo-temperatures in other regions where abundant relict wood is present.

Keywords

Tree ringsLarchRegional curve standardization (RCS)Centennial-scale temperature estimatesSiberiaMeridional transectElevational transect
Type
Research Article
Information
Quaternary Research , Volume 62 , Issue 2 , September 2004 , pp. 126 - 133
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

Anonymous, , (1970). Climate of the USSR: Volume 24. Krasnoyarsk Krai and Tuva. Gidrometeoisdat, Krasnoyarsk., 999 pp. In Russian.Google Scholar
Anonymous, , (1989). Climate of the USSR: Volume 24. Krasnoyarsk Krai and Tuva. Gidrometeoisdat, Krasnoyarsk., 906 pp., In Russian.Google Scholar
Beltrami, H., Chapman, D.S., Archambault, S., Bergeron, Y., (1995). Reconstruction of high resolution ground temperature histories combining dendrochronological and geothermal data. Earth and Planetary Science Letters 136, 437–445.Google Scholar
Briffa, K.R., Jones, P.D., Bartholin, T.S., Eckstein, D., Schweingruber, F.H., Karlen, W., Zetterberg, P., Eronen, M., (1992). Fennoscandian summers from A.D. 500: temperature changes on short and long timescales. Climate Dynamics 7, 111–119.Google Scholar
Briffa, K.R., Jones, P.D., Schweingruber, F.H., Shiyatov, S.G., Cook, E.R., (1995). Unusual twentieth century summer warmth in a 1000 year temperature record from Siberia. Nature 376, 156–159.Google Scholar
Briffa, K.R., Jones, P.D., Schweingruber, F.H., Karlén, W., Shiyatov, S.G., (1996). Tree-ring variables as proxy-climate indicators: problems with low-frequency signals. Bradley, R.S., Jones, P.D., Jouzel, J., Climatic variations and forcing mechanisms of the last 2000 years. NATO ASI Series I vol. 41B, Springer Verlag, Berlin., 9–41.Google Scholar
Briffa, K.R., Osborn, T.J., Schweingruber, F.H., Harris, I.C., Jones, P.D., Shiyatov, S.G., Vaganov, E.A., (2001). Low-frequency temperature variations from a northern Tree Ring Density Network. Journal of Geophysical Research 106, D3 2929–2941.Google Scholar
Cook, E.R., Kairiukstis, L.A., (1989). Methods of Dendrochronology: Applications in the Environmental Sciences. Kluwer, Dordrecht.Google Scholar
Cook, E., Briffa, K., Shiyatov, S., Mazepa, V., (1990). Tree-ring standardization and growth-trend estimation. Cook, E.R., Kairiukstis, L., Methods of Dendrochronology: Applications in the Environmental Sciences Kluwer, Dordrecht., 104–123.Google Scholar
Earle, C.J., Brubaker, L.B., Lozhkin, A.V., Anderson, P.M., (1994). Summer temperature since 1600 for the Upper Kolyma River, northeastern Russia, reconstructed from Tree Rings. Arctic and Alpine Research 26, 60–65.Google Scholar
Esper, J., Cook, E.R., Schweingruber, F.H., (2002). Low-frequency signals in long tree-ring chronologies for reconstructing past temperature variability. Science 295, 2250–2253.Google Scholar
Fritts, H.C., (1963). Computer programs for tree-ring research. Tree-Ring Bulletin 25, 2–6.Google Scholar
Fritts, H.C., (1976). Tree Rings and Climate. Academic Press, London.Google Scholar
Furyaev, V.V., Vaganov, E.A., Tchebakova, N.M., Valendik, E.N., (2001). Effects of fire and climate on successions and structural changes in the Siberian boreal forests. Eurasian Journal of Forestry Research 2, 1–15.Google Scholar
Graybill, D.A., Shiyatov, S.G., (1992). Dendroclimatic evidence from the northern Soviet Union. Bradley, Raymond S., Jones, Phillip D., Climate Since A.D. 1500 Routledge, London., 393–414.Google Scholar
Hughes, M.K., Kelly, P.M., Pilcher, J.R., LaMarche, V.C., (1982). Climate From Tree Rings. Cambridge Univ. Press, Cambridge.Google Scholar
Hughes, M.K., Vaganov, E.A., Shiyatov, S., Touchan, R., Funkhouser, G., (1999). Twentieth-century summer warmth in northern Yakutia in a 600-year context. The Holocene 9, 629–634.Google Scholar
Huntley, B., Prentice, I.C., (1988). July temperatures in Europe from Pollen data, 6000 years before present. Science 241, 687–690.Google Scholar
Johansen, Stein, (1995). Dendroclimatological study of Larix gmelinii at the forest Borderin the Lower Kolyma River region, North-Eastern Siberia. Gunneria 69, 1–20.Google Scholar
Kirdyanov, A., Hughes, M., Vaganov, E., Schweingruber, F., Silkin, P., (2003). The importance of early summer temperature and date of snow melt for tree growth in the Siberian Subarctic. Trees 17, 1 61–69.Google Scholar
Kullman, L., Kjallgren, L., (2000). A coherent postglacial tree-limit chronology (Pinus sylvestris L.) for the Swedish Scandes: aspect of paleoclimate and “Recent Warming,” based on megafossil evidence. Arctic, Antarctic and Alpine Research 32, 419–428.Google Scholar
MacDonald, Glen M., Edwards, Tom W.D., Moser, Katrina A., Pienitz, Reinhard, Smol, John P., (1993). Rapid response of treeline vegetation and lakes to past climate warming. Nature 361, 243–246.Google Scholar
MacDonald, G., Velichko, A., Kremenistski, C., Borisova, O., Goleva, A., Andreev, A., Cwynar, L., Riding, R., Forman, S., Edwards, T., Aravena, R., Hammarlund, D., Szeicz, J., Gattaulin, V., (2000). Holocene treeline history and climate change across northern Eurasia. Quaternary Research 53, 302–311.Google Scholar
Majorowicz, J.A., Skinner, W.R., (2001). Reconstruction of the surface warming history of western interior Canada from borehole temperature profiles and other climate information. Climate Research 16, 157–167.Google Scholar
Naurzbaev, M.M., Vaganov, E.A., (2000). Variation of early summer and annual temperature in East Taymir and Putoran (Siberia) over the last two millennia inferred from Tree Rings. Journal of Geophysical Research 105, 7317–7326.Google Scholar
Naurzbaev, M.M., Sidorova, O.V., Vaganov, E.A., (2001). History of the late Holocene climate on the eastern Taimyr according to long-term Tree-Ring chronology. Archaeology, Ethnology and Anthropology of Eurasia 3, 17–25.Google Scholar
Panyushkina, I.P., Vaganov, E.A., Shishov, V.V., (1996). Spatio-temporal variation of radial tree growth in relation to climate in the North of Middle Siberia. Dendrochronologia 14, 115–126.Google Scholar
Pleshikov, F.I., (2002). Forest Ecosystems of the Yenisey Meridian. Nauka, Novosibirsk., 365 pp.Google Scholar
Pollack, H.N., Demezhko, D.Y., Duchkov, A.D., Golovanova, I.V., Huang, S., Shchapov, V.A., Smerdon, J.E., (2003). Surface temperature trends in Russia over the past five centuries reconstructed from borehole temperatures. J. Geophys. Res. 108, B4 2180 doi: 10.1029/2002JB002154.Google Scholar
Rinn, F., (1996). TSAP V3.6: Reference Manual: Computer Program for Tree-Ring Analysis and Presentation, Heidelberg..Google Scholar
Schulman, E., (1954). Longevity under adversity in conifers. Science 119, 396–399.Google Scholar
Shiyatov, S.G., Mazepa, V.S., Vaganov, E.A., Schweingruber, F.H., (1996). Summer temperature variations reconstructed by Tree Ring data at the polar timberline in Siberia. Dean, J.S., Meko, D.M., Swetnam, T.W., Tree Rings, Environment and Humanity Radiocarbon, Tucson., 61–70.Google Scholar
Vaganov, E.A., Shiyatov, S.G., Mazepa, V.S., (1996). Dendroclimatic Study in Ural–Siberian Subarctic. Nauka, Novosibirsk., 246 pp.Google Scholar
Vaganov, E.A., Hughes, M.K., Kirdyanov, A.V., Schweingruber, F.H., Silkin, P.P., (1999). Influence of snowfall and melt timing on tree growth in subarctic Eurasia. Nature 400, 149–151.Google Scholar
Wolfe, B.B., Edwards, T.W.D., Aravena, R., Forman, S.L., Warner, B.G., Velichko, A.A., MacDonald, G.M., (2000). Holocene paleohydrology and paleoclimate at treeline, North-Central Russia, inferred from oxygen isotope records in lake sediment cellulose. Quaternary Research 53, 319–329.Google Scholar