Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-2brh9 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-23T22:30:15.880Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

A ring-width-based reconstruction of June–July minimum temperatures since AD 1245 from white spruce stands in the Mackenzie Delta region, northwestern Canada

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Trevor J. Porter ,
Michael F.J. Pisaric ,
Steven V. Kokelj  and
Peter deMontigny
Trevor J. Porter*
Affiliation:
Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Canada Department of Geography and Environmental Studies, Carleton University, Ottawa, Canada
Michael F.J. Pisaric
Affiliation:
Department of Geography and Environmental Studies, Carleton University, Ottawa, Canada Department of Geography, Brock University, St. Catharines, Canada
Steven V. Kokelj
Affiliation:
Renewable Resources and Environment, Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development Canada, Northwest Territories Geoscience Office, Yellowknife, Canada
Peter deMontigny
Affiliation:
Department of Geography and Environmental Studies, Carleton University, Ottawa, Canada
*
*Corresponding author at: Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Canada. Fax: + 1 780 492 2030. E-mail address:[email protected] (T.J. Porter)., URL: www.tjporter.webs.com (T.J. Porter).
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

We present a reconstruction of June–July minimum temperatures since AD 1245 for the Mackenzie Delta region based on a 29-site network of white spruce (Picea glauca) ring-width series. Most but not all trees experienced a divergent temperature–growth response, similar to the divergence that has affected other white spruce trees across Yukon and Alaska. However, divergence in the study region began as early as AD 1900 and we have documented our methods to avoid including divergent signals in the reconstruction. Calibration/verification testing based on local temperature data, and multi-century coherence with nearby and large-scale temperature proxy records, confirm that our reconstruction is robust. The reconstruction shows cool conditions in the late 13th, early 18th and early 19th centuries, corresponding with solar minima and increased volcanism. These cool periods are interrupted by warm periods consistent with early to mid-20th century warmth. The late 20th century is the warmest interval, and the last decade is estimated to be 1.4°C warmer than any decade before the mid-20th century. The reconstructed climate history corroborates other proxy-based inferences and supports the notion that high-latitude regions such as the Mackenzie Delta have experienced rapid warming in recent decades that is exceptional in the last eight centuries.

Keywords

Mackenzie DeltaWhite spruceTree-ring widthDivergenceDendroclimatologyTemperature reconstruction
Type
Original Articles
Information
Quaternary Research , Volume 80 , Issue 2 , September 2013 , pp. 167 - 179
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

ACIA, (2005). Arctic Climate Impact Assessment. Cambridge University Press, New York, NY, USA.(1042 pp.).Google Scholar
Anchukaitis, K., D'Arrigo, R., Andreu-Hayles, L., Frank, D., Verstege, A., Curtis, A., Buckley, B., Jacoby, G., Cook, E., (2012). Tree-ring reconstructed summer temperatures from northwestern North America during the last nine centuries. Journal of Climate 10.1175/JCLI-D-11-00139.1.Google Scholar
Anderson, L., Abbott, M.B., Finney, B.P., Burns, S.J., (2007). Late Holocene moisture balance variability in the southwest Yukon Territory, Canada. Quaternary Science Reviews 26, 130–141.Google Scholar
Anderson, L., Finney, B.P., Shapley, M.D., (2011). Lake carbonate-δ18O records from the Yukon Territory, Canada: Little Ice Age moisture variability and patterns. Quaternary Science Reviews 30, 887–898.Google Scholar
Andreu-Hayles, L., D'Arrigo, R., Anchukaitis, K.J., Beck, P.S.A., Frank, D., Goetz, S., (2011). Varying boreal forest response to Arctic environmental change at the Firth River, Alaska. Environmental Research Letters 6, 10.1088/1748-9326/6/4/045503.Google Scholar
Barber, V.A., Juday, G.P., Finney, B.P., (2000). Reduced growth of Alaskan white spruce in the twentieth century from temperature-induced drought stress. Nature 405, 668–673.Google Scholar
Bard, E., Raisbeck, G., Yiou, F., Jouzel, J., (2000). Solar irradiance during the last 1200 years based on cosmogenic nuclides. Tellus B 52, 985–992.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bégin, C., Michaud, Y., Archambault, S., (2000). Tree-ring evidence of recent climate changes in the Mackenzie Basin, Northwest Territories. Geological Survey of Canada Bulletin 547, 65–77.Google Scholar
Briffa, K.R., Melvin, T.M., (2011). A closer look at regional curve standardization of tree-ring records: justification of the need, a warning of some pitfalls, and suggested improvements in its application. Hughes, M., Swetnam, T., Diaz, H. Dendroclimatology: Progress and Prospects. Springer, New York.113–145.Google Scholar
Briffa, K.R., Bartholin, T.S., Eckstein, D., Jones, P.D., Karlén, W., Schweingruber, F.H., Zetterberg, P., (1990). A 1,400 year tree-ring record of summer temperatures in Fennoscandia. Nature 346, 434–439.Google Scholar
Briffa, K.R., Osborn, T.J., Schweingruber, F.H., Jones, P.D., Shiyatov, S.G., Vaganov, E.A., (2002). Tree-ring width and density data around the Northern Hemisphere: part 1, local and regional climate signals. The Holocene 12, 737–757.Google Scholar
Brohan, P., Kennedy, J.J., Haris, I., Tett, S.F.B., Jones, P.D., (2006). Uncertainty estimates in regional and global observed temperature changes: a new data set from 1850. Journal of Geophysical Research 111, 10.1029/2005JD006548.Google Scholar
Bunn, A.G., Goetz, S.J., Kimball, J.S., Zhang, K., (2007). Northern high-latitude ecosystems respond to climate change. EOS Transactions 34, 333–335.Google Scholar
Büntgen, U., Esper, J., Frank, D., Nicolussi, K., Schmidhalter, M., (2005). A 1052, year tree-ring proxy for Alpine summer temperatures. Climate Dynamics 25, 141–153.Google Scholar
Burn, C.R., Kokelj, S.V., (2009). The environment and permafrost of the Mackenzie Delta area. Permafrost and Periglacial Processes 20, 83–105.Google Scholar
Cook, E.R., (1985). A Time Series Analysis Approach to Tree Ring Standardization. (PhD dissertation) University of Arizona, Tucson, USA.(171 pp.).Google Scholar
Cook, E.R., Kairiukstis, L.A., (1990). Methods of Dendrochronology: Applications in the Environmental Sciences. Kluwer Academic Publishers, Boston.(394 pp.).Google Scholar
Cook, E.R., Peters, K., (1981). The smoothing spline: a new approach to standardizing forest interior tree-ring width series for dendroclimatic studies. Tree-Ring Bulletin 41, 45–53.Google Scholar
Cook, E.R., Briffa, K.R., Meko, D.M., Graybill, D.A., Funkhouser, G., (1995). The “segment length curse” in long tree-ring chronology development for paleoclimatic studies. The Holocene 5, 229–237.Google Scholar
Cook, E.R., Esper, J., D'Arrigo, R.D., (2004). Extra-tropical Northern Hemisphere land temperature variability over the past 1000 years. Quaternary Science Reviews 23, 2063–2074.Google Scholar
D'Arrigo, R., Kaufmann, R.K., Davi, N., Jacoby, G.C., Laskowski, C., Myneni, R.B., Cherubini, P., ('Arrigo et al., 2004). Thresholds for warming-induced growth decline at elevational tree line in the Yukon Territory, Canada. Global Biogeochemical Cycles 18, 10.1029/2004GB002249.Google Scholar
D'Arrigo, R., Wilson, R., Jacoby, G., ('Arrigo et al., 2006). On the long-term context for late twentieth century warming. Journal of Geophysical Research 111, 10.1029/2005JD006352.Google Scholar
D'Arrigo, R., Wilson, R., Liepert, B., Cherubini, P., ('Arrigo et al., 2008). On the “Divergence Problem” in northern forests: a review of the tree-ring evidence and possible causes. Global and Planetary Change 60, 289–305.Google Scholar
D'Arrigo, R., Jacoby, G., Buckley, B., Sakulich, J., Frank, D., Wilson, R., Curtis, A., Anchukaitis, K., ('Arrigo et al., 2009). Tree growth and inferred temperature variability at the North American arctic treeline. Global and Planetary Change 65, 71–82.Google Scholar
Drobyshev, I., Simard, M., Bergeron, Y., Hofgaard, A., (2010). Does soil organic layer thickness affect climate–growth relationships in the black spruce boreal ecosystem?. Ecosystems 13, 556–574.Google Scholar
Dyke, A.S., Andrews, J.T., Clark, P.U., England, J.H., Miller, G.H., Shaw, J., Veillette, J.J., (2002). The Laurentide and Innuitian ice sheets during the Last Glacial Maximum. Quaternary Science Reviews 21, 9–31.Google Scholar
Esper, J., Frank, D., (2009). Divergence pitfalls in tree-ring research. Climatic Change 94, 261–266.Google Scholar
Esper, J., Cook, E.R., Schweingruber, F.H., (2002). Low-frequency signals in long tree-ring chronologies for reconstructing past temperature variability. Science 295, 2250–2253.Google Scholar
Esper, J., Frank, D., Büntgen, U., Verstege, A., Hantemirov, R.M., Kirdyanov, A.V., (2010). Trends and uncertainties in Siberian indicators of 20th century warming. Global Change Biology 16, 386–398.Google Scholar
Flower, A., Smith, D.J., (2012). A dendroclimatic reconstruction of June–July mean temperature in the northern Canadian Rocky Mountains. Dendrochronologia 29, 55–63.Google Scholar
Frank, D., Esper, J., Cook, E.R., (2007). Adjustment for proxy number and coherence in a large-scale temperature reconstruction. Journal of Geophysical Research 34, 10.1029/2007GL030571.Google Scholar
Fritts, H.C., Moismann, J.E., Bottorff, C.P., (1969). A revised computer program for standardizing tree-ring series. Tree-Ring Bulletin 29, 15–20.Google Scholar
Gao, C., Robock, A., Ammann, C., (2008). Volcanic forcing of climate over the past 1500 years: an improved ice core-based index for climate models. Journal of Geophysical Research 113, 10.1029/2008JD010239.Google Scholar
Gostev, M., Wiles, G., D'Arrigo, R., Jacoby, G., Khomentovsky, P., (1996). Early summer temperatures since 1670 A.D. for Central Kamchatka reconstructed based on a Siberian larch tree-ring width chronology. Canadian Journal of Forest Research 26, 2048–2052.Google Scholar
Holmes, R.L., (1983). Computer-assisted quality control in tree-ring dating and measurement. Tree-Ring Bulletin 43, 69–78.Google Scholar
Hughes, M.K., (2011). Dendroclimatology in high-resolution paleoclimatology. Hughes, M.K., Swetnam, T.W., Diaz, H.F. Dendroclimatology: Progress and Prospects. Springer, New York.17–34.Google Scholar
IPCC, (2007). Climate Change 2007: The Physical Science Basis, Contribution of Working Group I to the Fourth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Cambridge University Press, New York, NY, USA.(996 pp.).Google Scholar
Jacoby, G.C., D'Arrigo, R.D., ('Arrigo, 1995). Tree ring width and density evidence of climatic and potential forest change in Alaska. Global Biogeochemical Cycles 9, 227–234.Google Scholar
Jansen, E., Overpeck, J., Briffa, K.R., Duplessy, J.C., Joos, F., Masson-Delmotte, V., Olago, D., Otto-Bliesner, B., Peltier, W.R., Rahmstorf, S., Ramesh, R., Raynaud, D., Rind, D., Solomina, O., Villalba, R., Zhang, D., Jensen, E.J., (2007). Palaeoclimate. Solomon, S., Qin, D., Manning, M., Chen, Z., Marquis, M., Averyt, K.B., Tignor, M., Miller, H.L. Climate Change 2007: The Physical Science Basis, Contribution of Working Group I to the Fourth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, United Kingdom and New York, USA.433–497.Google Scholar
Kaufman, D.S., Schneider, D.P., McKay, N.P., Ammann, C.M., Bradley, R.S., Briffa, K.R., Miller, G.H., Otto-Bliesner, B.L., Overpeck, J.T., Vinther, B.M., Arctic Lakes 2k Project Members, (2009). Recent warming reverses long-term Arctic cooling. Science 325, 1236–1239.Google Scholar
King, G.M., (2009). Factors Influencing the Growth of White Spruce (Picea glauca) in the Mackenzie Delta, NT. (Unpublished MSc thesis) Carleton University, Ottawa, Canada.(159 pp.).Google Scholar
Kokelj, S.V., Burn, C.R., (2005a). Near-surface ground ice in sediments of the Mackenzie Delta, Northwest Territories, Canada. Permafrost and Periglacial Processes 16, 291–303.Google Scholar
Kokelj, S.V., Burn, C.R., (2005b). Geochemistry of the active layer and near-surface permafrost, Mackenzie delta region, Northwest Territories, Canada. Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences 42, 37–48.Google Scholar
Kokelj, S.V., Pisaric, M.F.J., Burn, C.R., (2007). Cessation of ice wedge development during the 20th century in spruce forests of eastern Mackenzie Delta, Northwest Territories, Canada. Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences 44, 1503–1515.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lantz, T.C., Marsh, P., Kokelj, S.V., (2012). Recent shrub proliferation in the Mackenzie Delta uplands and microclimatic implications. Ecosystems 10.1007/s10021-012-9595-2.Google Scholar
Lawrimore, J.H., Menne, M.J., Gleason, B.E., Williams, C.N., Wuertz, D.B., Vose, R.S., Rennie, J., (2011). An overview of the Global Historical Climatology Network monthly mean temperature data set, version 3. Journal of Geophysical Research 116, 10.1029/2011JD016187.Google Scholar
Lloyd, A.H., Bunn, A.G., (2007). Responses of the circumpolar boreal forest to 20th century climate variability. Environmental Research Letters 2, 10.1088/1748-9326/2/4/045013.Google Scholar
Lloyd, A.H., Fastie, C.L., (2002). Spatial and temporal variability in the growth and climate response of treeline trees in Alaska. Climatic Change 52, 481–509.Google Scholar
Luckman, B.H., Wilson, R.J.S., (2005). Summer temperatures in the Canadian Rockies during the last millennium: a revised record. Climate Dynamics 24, 131–144.Google Scholar
Mackay, J.R., (1963). The Mackenzie Delta Area, N.W.T. Geographical Branch Memoir. Department of Mines and Technical Surveys, Ottawa, Ontario.202.Google Scholar
McGuire, A.D., Ruess, R.W., Lloyd, A., Yarie, J., Clein, J.S., Juday, G.P., (2010). Vulnerability of white spruce tree growth in interior Alaska in response to climate variability: dendrochronological, demographic, and experimental perspectives. Canadian Journal of Forest Research 40, 1197–1209.Google Scholar
Melvin, T.M., Briffa, K.R., (2008). A “signal-free” approach to dendroclimatic standardisation. Dendrochronologia 26, 71–86.Google Scholar
Nguyen, T.N., Burn, C.R., King, D.J., Smith, S.L., (2009). Estimating the extent of near-surface permafrost using remote sensing, Mackenzie Delta, Northwest Territories. Permafrost and Periglacial Processes 20, 141–153.Google Scholar
Norris, D.K., (1981). Aklavik, District of Mackenzie. Geology map 1517A (1:250,000). Geological Survey of Canada, Ottawa, Canada..Google Scholar
Pearce, C.M., McLennan, D., Cordes, L.D., (1988). The evolution and maintenance of white spruce woodlands on the Mackenzie Delta, N.W.T., Canada. Holarctic Ecology 11, 248–258.Google Scholar
Pisaric, M.F.J., Carey, S.K., Kokelj, S.V., Youngblut, D., (2007). Anomalous 20th century tree growth, Mackenzie Delta, Northwest Territories, Canada. Geophysical Research Letters 34, 10.1029/2006GL029139.Google Scholar
Porter, T.J., Pisaric, M.F.J., (2011). Temperature–growth divergence in white spruce forests of Old Crow Flats, Yukon Territory, and adjacent regions of northwestern North America. Global Change Biology 17, 3418–3430.Google Scholar
Porter, T.J., Pisaric, M.F.J., Kokelj, S.V., Edwards, T.W.D., (2009). Climatic signals in δ13C and δ18O of tree-rings from white spruce in the Mackenzie Delta region, northern Canada. Arctic, Antarctic, and Alpine Research 41, 497–505.Google Scholar
Porter, T.J., Pisaric, M.F.J., Field, R.D., Kokelj, S.V., Edwards, T.W.D., DeMontigny, P., Healy, R., LeGrande, A.N., (2013). Spring–summer temperatures since AD 1780 reconstructed from stable oxygen isotope ratios in white spruce tree-rings from the Mackenzie Delta, northwestern Canada. Climate Dynamics 10.1007/s00382-013-1674-3.Google Scholar
Rampton, V.N., (1988). Quaternary Geology of the Tuktoyaktuk Coastlands, Northwest Territories. Memoir 423 Geological Survey of Canada, Ottawa, Canada.Google Scholar
Serreze, M.C., Barrett, A.P., Stroeve, J.C., Kindig, D.N., Holland, M.M., (2009). The emergence of surface-based Arctic amplification. The Cryosphere 3, 11–19.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Speer, J.H., (2010). Fundamentals of Tree-ring Research. University of Arizona Press, Tucson, Arizona.(252 pp.).Google Scholar
Szeicz, J.M., MacDonald, G.M., (1995). Dendroclimatic reconstruction of summer temperatures in northwestern Canada since A.D. 1638 based on age-dependent modelling. Quaternary Research 44, 257–266.Google Scholar
Szeicz, J.M., MacDonald, G.M., (1996). A 930-year ring-width chronology from moisture-sensitive white spruce (Picea glauca Moench) in northwestern Canada. The Holocene 6, 345–351.Google Scholar
Tape, K., Sturm, M., Racine, C., (2006). The evidence for shrub expansion in northern Alaska and the Pan-Arctic. Global Change Biology 12, 686–702.Google Scholar
Turetsky, M.R., Kane, E.S., Harden, J.W., Ottmar, R.D., Manies, K.L., Hoy, E., Kasischke, E.S., (2011). Recent acceleration of biomass burning and carbon losses in Alaskan forests and peatlands. Nature Geoscience 4, 27–31.Google Scholar
Visser, H., Büntgen, U., D'Arrigo, R., Petersen, A.C., (2010). Detecting instabilities in tree-ring proxy calibration. Climate of the Past Discussions 6, 225–255.Google Scholar
Walker, D.A., Raynolds, M.K., Daniëls, F.J.A., Einarsson, E., Elvebakk, A., Gould, W.A., Katenin, A.E., Kholod, S.S., Markon, C.J., Melnikov, E.S., Moskalenko, N.G., Talbot, S.S., (2005). the other members of the CAVM Team. The Circumpolar Arctic vegetation map. Journal of Vegetation Science 16, 267–282.Google Scholar
Wigley, T.M.L., Briffa, K.R., Jones, P.D., (1984). On the average value of correlated time series, with applications in dendroclimatology and hydrometeorology. Journal of Climate and Applied Meteorology 23, 201–213.Google Scholar
Wigley, T.M.L., Jones, P.D., Briffa, K.R., (1987). Cross-dating methods in dendrochronology. Journal of Archaeological Science 14, 51–64.Google Scholar
Wilmking, M., Juday, G.P., Barber, V.A., Zald, H.S.J., (2004). Recent climate warming forces contrasting growth responses of white spruce at treeline in Alaska through temperature thresholds. Global Change Biology 10, 1724–1736.Google Scholar
Wilson, R., Luckman, B., (2003). Dendroclimatic reconstruction of maximum summer temperatures from upper tree-line sites in interior British Columbia. The Holocene 13, 853–863.Google Scholar
Wilson, R., D'Arrigo, R., Buckley, B., Büntgen, U., Esper, J., Frank, D., Luckman, B., Payette, S., Vose, R., Youngblut, D., (2007). A matter of divergence: tracking recent warming at hemispheric scales using tree ring data. Journal of Geophysical Research 112, 10.1029/2006JD008318.Google Scholar
Yarie, J., Van Cleve, K., (2010). Long-term monitoring of climatic and nutritional affects on tree growth in interior Alaska. Canadian Journal of Forest Research 40, 1325–1335.Google Scholar
Youngblut, D., Luckman, B., (2008). Maximum JuneéJuly temperatures in the southwest Yukon over the last 300 years reconstructed from tree rings. Dendrochronologia 25, 153–166.Google Scholar
Supplementary material: PDF

Porter et al. Supplementary Material

Supplementary Material

Download Porter et al. Supplementary Material(PDF)
PDF 1.8 MB