Millennial length foxtail pine tree-ring chronologies from the southern Sierra Nevada, California: Climate inferences for the last 4,000 years
- Univ. of Arizona, Tuscon, AZ (United States)
Long tree-ring chronologies from Foxtail pine (Pinus balfouriana Grev. Balf.) are important proxy records of past climate. Such crossdated chronologies can show sensitivity to climate both as year-to-year ring-width variation and on longer time-scales fluctuations of upper treeline position and changes in the distribution of living and sub-fossil wood. Collections from the area of Sequoia National Park in the southern Sierra Nevada, California were made from the lower elevational limit of foxtail to elevation [open quotes]ghost forests[close quotes] where this species was locally extinct and samples were obtained from sub-fossil wood that was found up to 65 m above the present treeline. Foxtail showed a strong annual response to precipitation with a weaker temperature influence at high elevations. I inferred long-term climate trends by examining treeline movement and age distributions of sub-fossil wood between the high and low elevations. Several distinct periods of long-term change were apparent and most obvious at upper elevations. At these sites, increased recruitment was indicated from [approximately]BC 1700-1200, followed by a major decline between [approximately]300-600 AD which was responsible for the majority of tree mortality in these stands. A more recent well dated decline occurred between [approximately]1250-1700 AD, during which all ghost forests I examined originated. Frost rings that were evidence of anomalous climatic events and showed dating consistenty among chronologies were found in BC 1627, 1132, 43, and AD 627, 687, 1331, and 1601.
- OSTI ID:
- 7067313
- Report Number(s):
- CONF-940894-; CODEN: BECLAG
- Journal Information:
- Bulletin of the Ecological Society of America; (United States), Vol. 75:2; Conference: Annual Ecological Society of America (ESA) meeting: science and public policy, Knoxville, TN (United States), 7-11 Aug 1994; ISSN 0012-9623
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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