Journal of the Royal Society of New Zealand abstracts
Dendroclimatic interpretation of tree-rings in Agathis australis
(kauri). 1. Climate correlation functions and master chronology.
Brendan Buckley1, John Ogden1*, Jonathan
Palmer2, Anthony Fowler3, Jim
Salinger4
1School of Environmental and Marine Science, University of
Auckland, Tamaki Campus, Auckland, New Zealand
2Dept. of Ecology and Entomology, Lincoln University, Canterbury,
New Zealand
3Dept. of Geography, University of Auckland, Auckland, New
Zealand
4National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research, Auckland,
New Zealand
* Author for correspondence
In this paper we analyse nine existing
Agathis australis (kauri)
chronologies for their response to climate, and compare our results with those
of previous studies. We update the southernmost chronology, from Katikati,
which now extends to the 1997 growth ring (1997-98 growing season in Southern
Hemisphere). We also employ recent standardisation procedures that have been
demonstrated to eliminate the chance of biasing the chronology indices. Climate
correlation functions are generated for all nine kauri chronologies, by
correlating chronology indices with meteorological datasets. In an earlier
study only a 12 month response window was analysed, combined with lagging the
growth year in order to account for prior-season growth response. Our expanded
dendroclimatic response window covers the 21 months from May of the year of
growth (t), back to the previous September (year t - 1). There are consistent
significant correlations with climate for all nine kauri sites, most pronounced
in the form of a positive response in season t to precipitation in the previous
season (t - 1), and an inverse response to temperature in the year of growth.
The most robust climate signal comes from the Katikati chronology, which has
been updated by 16 years to the 1997 growth ring. The additional years allow
for more degrees of freedom and a better estimate of the climate correlation
functions. Correlation and Principal Component Analyses validate the combining
of eight of the nine chronologies into one regional time series. The results
presented in this paper are encouraging for future dendroclimatic research with
Agathis australis, towards the goal of long-term reconstruction of
climate.
Keywords tree-rings; climate change; past climate;
paleoclimatology; dendroclimatology; Agathis australis; kauri
(c) Journal of The Royal Society of New Zealand,
Volume 30, Number 3, September 2000, pp 283-275
PDF file of entire paper: medium quality (812K); (scanned from paper original: notes about this process)
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