CGRG Bibliography of Canadian Geomorphology
Search Results
Author : Colenutt, M.E.; and Luckman, B.H.
Date : 2003.
Title : Summer temperature reconstructions for Southwestern Alberta.
Publication : 'On the Edge' Conference. Joint Meeting of the ACMLA, CAG, CCA and CRSA. May 27 to May 31, 2003. University of Victoria, Victoria, British Columbia.
Issue :
Page(s) :
Abstract
Alpine larch (Larix lyallii Parl.) growing at treeline in the Canadian Rockies reach ages of >800 years and the ringwidth series have high year-to-year variability, strong between-tree and between-site correlation and low autocorrelation. Growth reductions during the mid-1400s, early 1600s, late 1600s to mid-1700s, early to mid-1800s, early 1900s and late 1990s are expressed in all chronologies despite some local variability. These characteristics suggest that chronologies developed from this species should have considerable potential for climate reconstructions but the tree-ring/climate relationships are more complex than originally anticipated. Ringwidths have a high positive correlation with summer (June) temperatures, although the strongest relationships are not necessarily with the most proximal climate station. Reconstructions of seasonal summer temperatures for different sites/stations account for 29-48% of the variance in the instrumental records. Larix temperature reconstructions differ from those based on other tree species, both in year-to-year variability and long-term trends. These results suggest that each species may contribute some unique variance to proxy climate records reconstructed from tree-ring data. This paper will demonstrate some of these problems, using selected alpine larch ring-width chronologies from treeline sites in the southern Canadian Rockies
Bibliography of Canadian Geomorphology