S. St George et Bh. Luckman, Extracting a paleotemperature record from Picea engelmannii tree-line sites in the central Canadian Rockies, CAN J FORES, 31(3), 2001, pp. 457-470
Citations number
40
Categorie Soggetti
Plant Sciences
Journal title
CANADIAN JOURNAL OF FOREST RESEARCH-REVUE CANADIENNE DE RECHERCHE FORESTIERE
A new network of 21 Picea engelmannii Parry ex Engelm. ring-width chronolog
ies was developed from tree-line sites in the Canadian Rockies. These chron
ologies range in length from 297 to 648 years (mean 423 years) and have mea
n sensitivities between 0.16 and 0.20 (mean 0.18), first-order autocorrelat
ions between 0.73 and 0.88 (mean 0.83), and subsample signal strengths >0.8
5 for 246-494 years (mean 324 years). Mean intersite correlations (A.D. 170
0-1982) for chronologies with expressed population signals >0.85 are 0.46 a
nd 0.63 for standard and residual chronologies, respectively. Standard ring
-width chronologies are, in general, positively correlated with summer temp
eratures and negatively correlated with spring and previous summer temperat
ures. A regional June-September temperature reconstruction for the Banff-Ja
sper region (BJR; A.D. 1715-1982) was developed using multiple regression o
f three significant principal components from 14 standard ring-width chrono
logies. The first principal component contains 55% of the total chronology
variance. The model reconstructs 38% of summer temperature variance during
the calibration period (1888-1982). The BJR is the first regional temperatu
re reconstruction for this area based on ring-width data from a network of
sites. The reconstructed temperature patterns are broadly similar to other
regional estimates of past temperatures. Above-average summer temperatures
occurred in the mid-20th century and the late 1700s - early 1800s. Most of
the 19th century was unusually cold, with the coldest conditions in the lat
e 19th century. Detailed differences between BJR and previously developed r
econstructions lie well within 2 sigma confidence limits and may reflect di
fferences in tree species, modelling techniques, spatial coverage, and the
seasonal temperature parameter reconstructed.