Select Tree-Ring Chronologies for Large-Scale Paleoclimate Reconstruction

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Abstract ATM-9528148 Stahle, David W. University of Arkansas Title: Select Tree-ring Chronologies for Large-scale Paleoclimate Reconstruction Annual ring-width chronologies derived from ancient trees present exactly-dated, strongly-replicated archives of environmental history, and provide one of the premier quantitative records of interannual to decadal climate variability during the Holocene. Select tree-ring chronologies from northern Mexico and the southern USA reflect both regional climate variations and changes in large- scale atmospheric circulation. This award supports research designed to develop a widely distributed array of long tree-ring chronologies in subtropical North America that are sensitive to the El Nino/Southern Oscillation (ENSO) and the Pacific/North America (PNA) circulation pattern. Selected locations where the most ENSO or PNA-sensitive chronologies occur will be revisited to sample additional ancient trees, historic timbers in nearby buildings, or well-preserved subfossil wood in order to compile the longest possible proxies of past circulation. This project will also intensify the effort to develop the first climate and ENSO- sensitive tree-ring chronologies in tropical East Africa. The proposed ENSO and PNA reconstruction should provide unique insight into the long-term variability of ENSO and/or its teleconnections; the possible link between ENSO and global average temperature during the Medieval Warm Period, Little Ice Age, and 20th century warming; and the possible coupling/decoupling between ENSO and PNA in forcing climate anomalies over North America.