TY - JOUR
T1 - Potential of oak tree-ring chronologies from Southern Portugal for climate reconstructions
AU - Leal, Sofia
AU - Campelo, Filipe
AU - Luz, Ana Luísa
AU - Carneiro, Maria Fátima
AU - Santos, João Andrade
PY - 2015/10/1
Y1 - 2015/10/1
N2 - The present work reports a first attempt to assemble long tree-ring chronologies from Portugal potentially useful for climate reconstructions. Three oak species (Quercus pyrenaica, Quercus faginea, and Quercus ilex) were sampled at three sites in southern Portugal to obtain tree-ring chronologies. The longest tree ring series covers 173 years extending back to 1840. Our tree-ring records show, depending on the site, moderate-to-high correlations with precipitation in different seasons (from r=0.40, p<0.01, to 0.81, p<0.001) and temporal stability in the growth/climate relationship for two sites. Calibration-verification trials confirm the reliability of climate/growth models for climatic reconstructions back to periods represented by tree-ring records from these two sites. Regional precipitation for Alentejo can be estimated for the following seasons: April through August (calibration r2=0.24); September, from previous year, to July (calibration r2=0.65). The results are a promising kick-off for Portuguese dendroclimatology, since they represent a significant breakthrough in the Mediterranean region, especially for Iberian Peninsula, where there is a considerable lack of dendroclimatic reconstructions. Further efforts to extend the tree-ring records back in time using subfossil material should be undertaken.
AB - The present work reports a first attempt to assemble long tree-ring chronologies from Portugal potentially useful for climate reconstructions. Three oak species (Quercus pyrenaica, Quercus faginea, and Quercus ilex) were sampled at three sites in southern Portugal to obtain tree-ring chronologies. The longest tree ring series covers 173 years extending back to 1840. Our tree-ring records show, depending on the site, moderate-to-high correlations with precipitation in different seasons (from r=0.40, p<0.01, to 0.81, p<0.001) and temporal stability in the growth/climate relationship for two sites. Calibration-verification trials confirm the reliability of climate/growth models for climatic reconstructions back to periods represented by tree-ring records from these two sites. Regional precipitation for Alentejo can be estimated for the following seasons: April through August (calibration r2=0.24); September, from previous year, to July (calibration r2=0.65). The results are a promising kick-off for Portuguese dendroclimatology, since they represent a significant breakthrough in the Mediterranean region, especially for Iberian Peninsula, where there is a considerable lack of dendroclimatic reconstructions. Further efforts to extend the tree-ring records back in time using subfossil material should be undertaken.
KW - Dendrochronology
KW - Mediterranean
KW - Oak
KW - Quercus spp.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84930959060&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.dendro.2015.05.003
DO - 10.1016/j.dendro.2015.05.003
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:84930959060
SN - 1125-7865
VL - 35
SP - 4
EP - 13
JO - Dendrochronologia
JF - Dendrochronologia
ER -