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Tree-Ring Density Networks for Climate Reconstruction

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Climatic Variations and Forcing Mechanisms of the Last 2000 Years

Part of the book series: NATO ASI Series ((ASII,volume 41))

Abstract

Conifers from regions with cool-moist summers (all mountains and the boreal conifer belt) are a suitable source of material for building a radiodensitometric tree-ring network in the northern hemisphere north of 40° latitude. Intra-annual densities from rings as small as 30 microns can be analysed using recently improved densitometric techniques. Networks of living conifers provide densitometric data that can be calibrated against instrumental temperatures and rigorous statistical comparisons clearly demonstrate that these data can be used to represent spatial patterns of temperature variability on annual and decadal timescales over, at least, the last 400 years. Continuous multimillennial chronologies of densitometric data are currently under construction in areas such as the Alps, northern Fennoscandia and Siberia (both the Yamal and Taimyr Peninsulas). Large numbers of logs and stumps that could provide material for the construction of many further high-quality multimillennial chronologies are known to exist in river sediments and lakes in the permafrost zone of northern Russia. Subfossil spruce in the boreal zone of northern North America are apparently rare. Relatively little densitometry has been undertaken in the southern hemisphere and what limited results have been produced seem to indicate that densitometric data offer little additional information, at least as regards temperature sensitivity, above that provided by more commonly analysed tree-ring width data.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research, CH-8903, Birmensdorf, Switzerland

    Fritz H. Schweingruber

  2. Climatic Research Unit School of Environmental Sciences, University of East Anglia, Norwich, NR4 7TJ, UK

    Keith R. Briffa

Authors
  1. Fritz H. Schweingruber
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  2. Keith R. Briffa
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Climatic Research Unit, University of East Anglia, Norwich, NR4 7TJ, UK

    Philip D. Jones

  2. Department of Geosciences, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, 01003-5820, MA, USA

    Raymond S. Bradley

  3. Laboratoire de Modélisation du Climat et de l’Environnment, Orme des Merisiers, C E Saclay, Gif-sur-Yvette Cedex, F-91191, France

    Jean Jouzel

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Schweingruber, F.H., Briffa, K.R. (1996). Tree-Ring Density Networks for Climate Reconstruction. In: Jones, P.D., Bradley, R.S., Jouzel, J. (eds) Climatic Variations and Forcing Mechanisms of the Last 2000 Years. NATO ASI Series, vol 41. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-61113-1_3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-61113-1_3

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

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