Climate change response of great basin bristlecone pine in the Nevada NSF-EPSCoR Project (www.nvclimatechange.org)

Abstract

Predicting the future of high-elevation pine populations is closely linked to correctly interpreting their past responses to climatic variability. As a proxy index of climate, dendrochronological records have the advantage of seasonal to annual resolution over multiple centuries to millennia (Bradley 1999). All climate reconstructions rely on the 'uniformity principle' (Camardi 1999), which assumes that modern natural processes have acted similarly in the past, and is used to calibrate proxy records of climate against instrumental observations (National Research Council 2006). The possibility has recently been raised that long proxy records of climate could be biased by the presence of periods during which relationships inferred from the instrumental period no longer hold, an issue that can potentially transform the entire discipline of paleoclimatology. One of the best known cases involves high-latitude tree-ring parameters (width and maximum latewood density) that used to correlate closely with air temperature, but have shown a 'divergence' from instrumental temperature data during the late 20th century (Jacoby and D'Arrigo 1995; Briffa et al. 1998).

Parent Publication

• The future of high-elevation, five-needle white pines in Western North America: Proceedings of the High Five Symposium

Citation

Biondi, Franco; Strachan, Scotty. 2011. Climate change response of great basin bristlecone pine in the Nevada NSF-EPSCoR Project (www.nvclimatechange.org). In: Keane, Robert E.; Tomback, Diana F.; Murray, Michael P.; Smith, Cyndi M., eds. The future of high-elevation, five-needle white pines in Western North America: Proceedings of the High Five Symposium. 28-30 June 2010; Missoula, MT. Proceedings RMRS-P-63. Fort Collins, CO: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Research Station. p. 203-204.