The dendrochronological potential of ten species in the Three Gorges Reservoir region of China

About 250 trees, representing 10 species, were collected from the Chinese T hree Gorges Reservoir region as part of a study to use tree rings as indica tors of environmental change in this area. Five species do not show distinc t ring boundaries or cannot be cross-dated with each other. The dendrochron ological potential of the remaining five species, two conifers and three ha rdwoods, are assessed in this paper. These five species, Cathaya argyrophyl la, Cinnamomum camphora, Gordonia acuminata, Pinus massoniana, and Scheffle ra devayi, have distinct annual growth rings and little occurrence of doubl e or missing rings. Tree-ring width and maximum latewood density chronologi es from the five species range in length from 38 to 138 years. These relati vely short chronologies are just long enough to conduct a preliminary dendr oclimatic evaluation. Preliminary climate modeling demonstrates some signif icant relationships between tree-ring data and temperature, pre cipitation, and river flow.