Multivariate Techniques for Specifying Tree-Growth and Climate Relationships and for Reconstructing Anomalies in Paleoclimate
Institution: | University of Arizona |
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Department: | Laboratory of Tree-Ring Research, University of Arizona |
Year: | 1970 |
Keywords: | Paleoclimatology.; Dendrochronology.; Tree-rings. |
Record ID: | 1555950 |
Full text PDF: | http://hdl.handle.net/10150/302685 |
Ring widths from trees on certain sites reflect climatic variation. Therefore, long time series derived from replicated and precisely dated ring-width chronologies may be utilized to extend climatic records into prehistoric times. Multivariate analyses of tree -ring chronologies from western North America are used to derive response functions from which one can ascertain what climatic information each ring -width chronology contains. In addition, multivariate analyses are utilized to calibrate a large number of ring -width chronologies of diverse response functions and from widely dispersed sites with a large number of regional climatic variables. A series of transfer functions are derived which allow estimates of anomalous climatic variation from tree -ring records. Reconstructions of anomalous variation in atmospheric circulation for portions of the northern hemisphere back to A.D. 1700 are obtained by applying the transfer functions to tree -ring data for time periods when ring data are available but climatic data are not.