TREE-RING RESEARCH ON TECTONA-GRANDIS ON NORTHERN THAILAND

From a network of teak chronologies in northern Thailand, 75 trees wit hin one province were evaluated regarding their climatic signal. The r aw tree-ring series revealed a high mean sensitivity of 0.50 and a mod erate first-order autocorrelation of 0.48, The first principal compone nt of the standardized data explained 44% of the total variation in th e tree-ring data, indicating a considerable climatic influence on tree growth. The climate-growth relationship suggested that growth of teak in this study area is mainly controlled by rainfall from April to Jun e. Thus, there is some promise that the whole network of teak chronolo gies in northern Thailand can contribute to reconstructing climate ove r at least the last three centuries.