Application of the Minimum Blue-Intensity Technique To A Southern-Hemisphere Conifer

Bibliographic Data

ID24102499
AuthorsMatthew Brookhouse (0000-0002-1127-255X, Australian National University, corresponding author), Rochelle Graham (Hydrologic Research Center)
Year2016
Volume72
Issue2
Pages103-107
Publication date2016-07-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueTree-Ring Research (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1536-1098 • E-ISSN: 2162-4585
PublisherTree-Ring Society (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.3959/1536-1098-72.02.103
OpenAlexW2512491768
LanguageEN
References cited18

Minimum blue-intensity (BI) appears to be a viable source of proxy-temperature data, but is yet to be applied to a Southern-Hemisphere species. Here, we apply the BI technique to Podocarpus lawrencei, a conifer endemic to the Australian Alps. We develop sample-preparation protocols and examine the climate sensitivity of resulting tree-ring width (TRW) and BI chronologies. We found that extractable resins were removed from P. lawrencei samples after 28 hours of Soxhlet extraction and a highly-significant negative correlation (r = -0.79, p<0.0001) exists between the resulting BI chronology and growing season (August–April) temperature maxima. The climate sensitivity of our BI data, combined with an apparent teleconnection with a previously-reported dataset, suggests that an unparalleled opportunity exists to develop a powerful proxy for growing-season temperatures in southeast Australia.

Archaeology · Atmospheric sciences · Biology · Botany · Climate change · Climatology · Dendrochronology · El Niño Southern Oscillation · Geography · Growing season · Northern Hemisphere · Physical geography · Proxy (statistics) · Southern Hemisphere · Statistics · Teleconnection · Ecology and Vegetation Dynamics Studies · Environmental Science · Geology · Mathematics · Oceanography · Plant Water Relations and Carbon Dynamics · Tree-ring climate responses