Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-ndw9j Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-15T05:17:30.172Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

An annually resolved bristlecone pine carbon isotope chronology for the last millennium

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Roderick J. Bale ,
Iain Robertson ,
Matthew W. Salzer ,
Neil J. Loader ,
Steven W. Leavitt ,
Mary Gagen ,
Thomas P. Harlan  and
Danny McCarroll
Roderick J. Bale*
Affiliation:
Department of Archaeology History and Anthropology, University of Wales Trinity Saint David, Lampeter, Ceredigion, SA48 7ED, UK Department of Geography, Swansea University, Singleton Park, Swansea SA2 8PP, UK
Iain Robertson
Affiliation:
Department of Geography, Swansea University, Singleton Park, Swansea SA2 8PP, UK
Matthew W. Salzer
Affiliation:
Laboratory of Tree-Ring Research, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ 85721, USA
Neil J. Loader
Affiliation:
Department of Geography, Swansea University, Singleton Park, Swansea SA2 8PP, UK
Steven W. Leavitt
Affiliation:
Laboratory of Tree-Ring Research, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ 85721, USA
Mary Gagen
Affiliation:
Department of Geography, Swansea University, Singleton Park, Swansea SA2 8PP, UK
Thomas P. Harlan
Affiliation:
Laboratory of Tree-Ring Research, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ 85721, USA
Danny McCarroll
Affiliation:
Department of Geography, Swansea University, Singleton Park, Swansea SA2 8PP, UK
*
⁎Corresponding author at: Department of Archaeology History and Anthropology, University of Wales Trinity Saint David, Lampeter, Ceredigion, SA48 7ED, UK. Fax: + 44 1570 424994. E-mail address:[email protected] (R.J. Bale).
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

We present the first near millennium-length, annually resolved stable isotope record from bristlecone pines (Pinus longaeva, D.K Bailey). The carbon isotope ratios from the cellulose of seven trees from the White Mountains of California, corrected for anthropogenic changes in atmospheric chemistry, are used to reconstruct growing season (June through August) precipitation back to AD 1085. Extremely negative isotope results are strongly correlated with proposed severest El Niño events over the last 500 yr, and similar values in the first half of the millennium are used to reconstruct a further 13 strong El Niño events, concentrated in the 12th Century and the mid 13th and 14th Centuries. Ring-width chronologies from adjacent sites in the White Mountains demonstrate a high degree of decadal covariance with the δ13C series, although there are several periods of notable divergence.

Keywords

Bristlecone pineCarbon isotopesDendroclimatologyClimate changeTree ringsPalaeoclimateDroughtPrecipitationEl Niño
Type
Research Article
Information
Quaternary Research , Volume 76 , Issue 1 , July 2011 , pp. 22 - 29
Copyright
University of Washington

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Adams, J.B., Mann, M.E., and Ammann, M. Proxy evidence for an El Niño-like response to volcanic forcing. Nature 426, (2003). 274–278.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bale, R.J., (2008). Climate reconstruction of the last millennium from bristlecone pine tree rings at Blanco, White Mountains, California, USA. Unpublished PhD thesis, Swansea University, .Google Scholar
Bale, R.J., Robertson, I., Leavitt, S.W., Loader, N.J., Harlan, T.P., Gagen, M., Young, G.H.F., Csank, A.Z., Froyd, C., and McCarroll, D. Temporal stability in bristlecone pine tree-ring stable oxygen isotope chronologies over the last two centuries. Holocene 10, (2010). 3–6.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Berkelhammer, M., and Stott, L.D. Recent and dramatic changes in Pacific storm trajectories recorded in δ18O from bristlecone pine tree ring cellulose. Geochemistry, Geophysics, Geosystems 9, (2008). Q04008 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Berkelhammer, M., and Stott, L.D. Modeled and observed intra-ring delta O-18 cycles within late Holocene bristlecone pine tree samples. Chemical Geology 264, (2009). 13–23.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cernusak, L.A., Marshall, J.D., Comstock, J.P., and Balster, N.J. Carbon isotope discrimination in photosynthetic bark. Oecologia 128, (2001). 24–35.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Coltrain, J., and Leavitt, S.W. Climate and diet in Fremont prehistory: economic variability and abandonment of maize agriculture in the Great Salt Lake Basin. American Antiquity 67, (2002). 453–485.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Elliot Fisk, D.L., and Peterson, A.M. Trees. Hall, J. Natural history of the White-Inyo range. (1991). University of California, Los Angeles. 87–107.Google Scholar
Feng, X., and Epstein, S. Climatic implications of an 8000-year hydrogen isotope time series from Bristlecone pine trees. Science 265, (1994). 1079–1081.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Ferguson, C.W. Dendrochronology of bristlecone pine, Pinus longaeva . Environ. Int. 2, (1979). 209–214.Google Scholar
Fritts, H. “Bristlecone pine in the White Mountains of California: Growth and ring width characteristics.” University of Tucson, Arizona. (1969). Google Scholar
Fritts, H. Tree Rings and Climate. (1976). Academic press, New York.Google Scholar
Gagen, M., McCarroll, D., Loader, N.J., Robertson, I., Jalkanen, R., and Anchukaitis, K.J. Exorcising the ‘segment length curse’: summer temperature reconstruction since AD 1640 using non-detrended stable carbon isotope ratios from pine trees in northern Finland. Holocene 17, (2007). 435–446.Google Scholar
Gergis, J.L., and Fowler, A.M. A history of ENSO events since AD 1525: implications for future climate change. Climatic Change 92, (2009). 343–387.Google Scholar
Kipfmueller, K.F., and Salzer, M.W. Linear trend and climate response of five-needle pines in the western United States related to treeline proximity. Canadian Journal of Forest Research 40, (2010). 134–142.Google Scholar
LaMarche, J.V.C. Paleoclimatic inferences from long tree-ring records. Science 183, (1974). 1043–1048.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
LaMarche, J.V.C., and Hirschboeck, K.K. Frost rings in trees as records of major volcanic eruptions. Nature 307, (1984). 121–126.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Leavitt, S.W. Major wet interval in White Mountains Medieval Warm Period evidenced in δ13C of bristlecone pine tree rings. Climatic Change 26, (1994). 299–307.Google Scholar
Leavitt, S.W., and Long, A. Altitudinal differences in δ13C of bristlecone pine. Naturwissenschaften 79, (1992). 178–180.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Loader, N.J., Robertson, I., Barker, A.C., Switsur, V.R., and Waterhouse, J.S. A modified method for the batch processing of small wholewood samples to α-cellulose. Chemical Geology 136, (1997). 313–317.Google Scholar
Long, A., Leavitt, S.W., and Cheng, S. Carbon-13/Carbon-12 variations in bristlecone pine over the past 600 years and their relation to climate and global atmospheric CO2. Proceedings of the International Symposium on Ecological Aspects of Tree-Ring Analysis, U.S. Dept. of Energy/U.S. Environ. Protection Agency/U.S. Dept. of Agriculture, Publ. CONF-8608144. (1987). 485–493.Google Scholar
Lough, J.M., and Fritts, H.C. An assessment of the possible effects of volcanic eruptions on North American climate using tree-ring data, 1602 to 1900 A.D. Climatic Change 10, (1987). 219–239.Google Scholar
McCarroll, D., and Loader, N.J. Stable isotopes in tree rings. Quaternary Science Reviews 23, (2004). 771–801.Google Scholar
McCarroll, D., and Pawellek, F. Stable carbon isotope ratios of latewood cellulose in Pinus sylvestris from northern Finland: variability and signal strength. Holocene 8, (1998). 675–684.Google Scholar
McCarroll, D., Gagen, M.H., Loader, N.J., Robertson, I., Anchukaitis, K.J., Los, S., Young, G.H.F., Jalkanen, R., Kirchhefer, A.J., and Waterhouse, J.S. Correction of tree ring stable carbon isotope chronologies for changes in the carbon dioxide content of the atmosphere. Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta 73, (2009). 1539–1547.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Meko, D.M., and Woodhouse, C.A. Tree-ring footprint of joint hydrologic drought in Sacramento and Upper Colorado river basins, western USA. Journal of Hydrology 308, (2005). 196–213.Google Scholar
Meko, D.M., Woodhouse, C.A., Baisan, C.A., Knight, T., Lukas, J.J., Hughes, M.K., and Salzer, M.W. Medieval drought in the upper Colorado River Basin. Geophys. Res. Lett. 34, (2007). L10705 Google Scholar
National Research Council Surface temperature reconstructions for the last 2000 years. National Research Council. http://www.nap.edu/catalog/11676.html (2006). Date accessed: 02/02/2011 Google Scholar
Quinn, W.H., and Neal, V.T. The Historical record of El Niño events. Bradley, R.S., and Jones, P.D. Climate since AD 1500. (1992). Routledge, London. 623–648.Google Scholar
Rinne, K.T., Boettger, T., Loader, N.J., Robertson, I., Switsur, V.R., and Waterhouse, J.S. On the purification of α-cellulose from resinous wood for stable isotope (H, C and O) analysis. Chemical Geology 222, (2005). 75–82.Google Scholar
Robertson, I., Rolfe, J., Switsur, V.R., Carter, A.H.C., Hall, M.A., Barker, A.C., and Waterhouse, J.S. Signal strength and climate relationships in 13C/12C ratios of tree ring cellulose from oak in southwest Finland. Geophys. Res. Lett. 24, (1997). 1487–1490.Google Scholar
Robertson, I., Switsur, V.R., Carter, A.H.C., Barker, A.C., Waterhouse, J.S., Briffa, K.R., and Jones, P.D. Signal strength and climate relationships in 13C/12C ratios of tree ring cellulose from oak in east England. Journal of Geophysical Research 102, (1997). 19507–19519.Google Scholar
Salzer, M.W., and Hughes, M.K. Bristlecone pine tree rings and volcanic eruptions over the last 5000 yr. Quaternary Research 67, (2007). 57–68.Google Scholar
Salzer, M.W., Hughes, M.K., Bunn, A.G., and Kipfmueller, K.F. Recent unprecedented tree ring growth in bristlecone pine at the highest elevations and possible causes. Proceedings of the Natural Academy of Sciences 10, (2009). 1073 Google Scholar
Schleser, G.H., and Jayasekera, R. δ13C variations in leaves of a forest as indication of reassimilated CO2 from the soil. Oecologia 65, (1985). 536–542.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Stahle, D.W., Fye, F.K., Cook, E.R., and Griffin, R.D. Tree-ring reconstructed megadroughts over North America since A.D. 1300. Climatic Change 83, (2007). 133–149.Google Scholar
Stokes, M.A., and Smiley, T.L. An Introduction to Tree-Ring Dating University of Arizona Press. (1996). Tucson, Google Scholar
Tang, K., Feng, X., and Funkhouser, G. The δ13C of tree rings infull-bark and strip-bark bristlecone pine trees in the White Mountainsof California. Global Change Biology 5, (1999). 33–40.Google Scholar
Treydte, K., Schleser, G.H., Schweingruber, F.H., and Winiger, M. The climatic significance of δ13C in subalpine spruces (Lotschental, Swiss Alps). Tellus 53B, (2001). 593–611.Google Scholar
Tuovinen, M., Jalkanen, R., and McCarroll, D. The effect of severe ground frost on Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris) trees in northern Finland and implications for palaeoclimate reconstruction. Fennia 183, (2005). 109–117.Google Scholar
Wigley, T.M.L., Briffa, K.R., and Jones, P.D. On the average value of correlated time series, with applications in dendroclimatology and hydrometeorology. Journal of Climate and Applied Meteorology 23, (1984). 201–213.2.0.CO;2>CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wils, T.H.G., Robertson, I., Eshetu, Z., Koprowski, M., Sass-Klaassen, U.G.W., Touchan, R., and Loader, N.J. Towards a reconstruction of Blue Nile baseflow from Ethiopian tree rings. Holocene 20, (2010). 837–848.Google Scholar
Young, G.H.F., McCarroll, D., Loader, N.J., and Kirchhefer, A. A 500-year record of near ground solar radiation from tree-ring stable carbon isotopes. Holocene 20, (2010). 315–324.CrossRefGoogle Scholar