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U.S. Department of Energy
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Development of a rainfall sensitive tree-ring chronology in Zimbabwe

Conference ·
OSTI ID:535509
;  [1];  [2]
  1. Univ. of Arkansas, Fayetteville, AK (United States)
  2. Florida State Univ., Tallahassee, FL (United States); and others
This paper reports the discovery of annual tree ring formation in two species of trees in Zimbabwe and describes their paleoclimatic reconstruction potential. Due to the strong influence of El Nino-Southern Oscillation on the climate and crop yields of Zimbabwe and surrenting areas, and the rarity of annual tree ring chronologies in the tropics, the discovery of climatically sensitive growth rings is extremely significant. In particular, the Pterocarpus angolensis shows a strong correlation between the derived tree ring chronology and regional rainfall amounts. Based on sampling at the Sikumi Forest, it is speculated that P. angolensis may routinely achieve over 200 years in age. Four lines of evidence are identified which indicate that the semi-ring porous growth bands in P. angolensis are exactly annual growth rings. 18 refs., 3 figs.
OSTI ID:
535509
Report Number(s):
CONF-970207--; CNN: Grant ATM-9319156; Grant ATM-9528148
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English