Southern Research Station

Title: Detecting and Predicting Climatic Variation from Old-Growth Baldcypress

Author: Reams, Gregory A.; van Deusen, Paul C.

Date: 1998

Source: The Productivity & Sustainability of Southern Forest Ecosystems in a Changing Environment Edited by Mickler and Fox

Station ID: --

Description: Tree-ring data can extend back in time for thousands of years allowing researchers to reconstruct certain environmental factors that have left an imprint or signal in the tree-ring record. Typically, these factors include reconstructions of annual precipitation or temperature for months or seasons to which a particular tree species is sensitive. Over the last several decades, scientists have used tree-ring records in novel ways to investigate the timing and extent of such natural phenomena as volcanoes (Baillieand Munro,1988), earthquakes (Sheppard andJacoby, 1987), ElNina/southern oscillation (Stahle and Cleaveland,1993), fire (Swetnam 1993), carbon dioxide (CO₂) (Graybill and Idso,1993), and synchronous land- scape-level disturbances (Reams and Van Deusen, 1993) by recognizing the possibility that various signals may be recorded in the growth record of trees, depending on microsite characteristics, geographic location, and disturbance history (Fritts 1976). Climate reconstruction from tree-ring data involves establishing a relationship between the tree-ring variable(s) and some measure of climate. Theuniformi- tarian assumption (Fritts, 1976) is then called upon to allow for using this established relationship to reconstruct the climate variable during the period before climate measurements were available. Weather stations in the United States were rarely in place prior to approximately 1860, but many living trees provide data for centuries before that time. Thus, the motivation to use tree-ring derived variables to reconstruct climate is clear.

Keywords: 

View and Print this Publication (395 KB)

Pristine Version:  An uncaptured or "pristine" version of this publication is available. It has not been subjected to OCR (Optical Character Recognition) and therefore does not have any errors in the text. However it is a larger file size and some people may experience long download times. The "pristine" version of this publication is available here:

View and Print the PRISTINE copy of this Publication (12.2 MB)

Publication Notes: 

• We recommend that you also print this page and attach it to the printout of the article, to retain the full citation information.
• This article was written and prepared by U.S. Government employees on official time, and is therefore in the public domain.
• You may send email to pubrequest@fs.f ed.us to request a hard copy of this publication. (Please specify exactly which publication you are requesting and your mailing address.)

 Get the latest version of the Adobe Acrobat reader or Acrobat Reader for Windows with Search and Accessibility

Citation

Reams, Gregory A.; van Deusen, Paul C.  1998.  Detecting and Predicting Climatic Variation from Old-Growth Baldcypress .   The Productivity & Sustainability of Southern Forest Ecosystems in a Changing Environment Edited by Mickler and Fox