High Elevation Tree Rings and Climate in the North American Tropics

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This is a proposal to develop a long-term perspective on climate variability in the North American tropics using tree-ring records from the highest mountains in Mexico and Central America. The following questions will be addressed: (1) what is the tree-ring record of climate change in tropical North America?; (2) is ENSO or decadal-scale modulation represented in treeline growth?; (3) can the major modes of variability in the North American monsoon be retrieved from dendrochronological records?; (4) are tropical and/or extratropical volcanic eruptions reflected in high-elevation tree-ring features? Intensive monitoring of daily weather and tree growth will be performed at about 3600 m elevation on Nevado de Colima, Mexico, to quantify growing season length and dendroclimatic relationships. Several timberline sites will be sampled in central and southern Mexico, and exploratory field trips will be made to the highest mountains of Central America. The resulting network of tree-ring chronologies will be calibrated against instrumental and historical records to reconstruct large-scale features of climate.