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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:r.j.bale@tsd.ac.uk (R.J. Bale).
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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

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