Understanding oxygen isotope environmental signals in tree ring sequences from New York State
Abstract
The development of proxy climate records and analyses that allow for investigation and comparison of widespread regions will enhance the global understanding of past climate change through better correlations of significant events among different locations. Trees with a global distribution ranging from the tropics to the subarctic are an ideal medium from which to develop high-resolution isotopic records equivalent to those from varved lake sequences. However, in order to interpret the isotope record in the tree rings, proper calibration sites must be selected and studied. Here we present the results of a constructed calibration data set of oxygen isotopes in tree rings (1942 to 2003 A.D.) from four different locations, ranging from western, south central, central and southeastern New York State. Species studied for this project include eastern hemlock, eastern white pine, white spruce and tuliptree. The data set indicates that there is a clear regional signal in the oxygen isotope data, which indicates different precipitation sources areas for the four sites; these data have a total range of 25 to 33 V-SMOW. It is anticipated that this calibration data set will be used to calibrate older time-series spanning the Holocene from NE USA.
- Publication:
-
AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts
- Pub Date:
- December 2008
- Bibcode:
- 2008AGUFMPP31B1487A
- Keywords:
-
- 0473 Paleoclimatology and paleoceanography (3344;
- 4900);
- 0793 Biogeochemistry (0412;
- 0414;
- 1615;
- 4805;
- 4912);
- 1041 Stable isotope geochemistry (0454;
- 4870);
- 1055 Organic and biogenic geochemistry;
- 1637 Regional climate change