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Climatic Variations and Forcing Mechanisms of the Last 2000 Years pp 109–124Cite as

Multimillennial dendroclimatic studies from the western United States

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Part of the book series: NATO ASI Series ((ASII,volume 41))

Abstract

Multimillennial tree-ring chronologies from the mountains of the western United States provide an excellent opportunity to study decade to century scale variability in pre-instrumental times. This results from the lack of ecological interaction between the widely-spaced, climate-sensitive, long-lived trees characteristic of the higher elevations of this region. The availability of climate-sensitive > 1000 year tree-ring records in the western conterminous United States is unique. For example, 80 tree-ring chronologies of at least 1000 years length and 23 of at least 2000 years length, have been developed at our Laboratory for this region. A number of climate reconstructions of high quality have already been published using subsets of these data. The great potential of this resource will be demonstrated by reference to these reconstructions. In particular, we introduce a preliminary reconstruction of precipitation in the Great Basin covering the period 6000 B.C. to A.D. 1979. We will use this to place in context a striking pattern of two multidecade droughts each terminated by intense wet periods in the period between A.D. 900 and 1400.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Laboratory of Tree-Ring Research, University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona, 85721, USA

    Malcolm K Hughes & Lisa J Graumlich

Authors
  1. Malcolm K Hughes
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  2. Lisa J Graumlich
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Climatic Research Unit, University of East Anglia, Norwich, NR4 7TJ, UK

    Philip D. Jones

  2. Department of Geosciences, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, 01003-5820, MA, USA

    Raymond S. Bradley

  3. Laboratoire de Modélisation du Climat et de l’Environnment, Orme des Merisiers, C E Saclay, Gif-sur-Yvette Cedex, F-91191, France

    Jean Jouzel

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© 1996 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

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Hughes, M.K., Graumlich, L.J. (1996). Multimillennial dendroclimatic studies from the western United States. In: Jones, P.D., Bradley, R.S., Jouzel, J. (eds) Climatic Variations and Forcing Mechanisms of the Last 2000 Years. NATO ASI Series, vol 41. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-61113-1_6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-61113-1_6

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-642-64700-0

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-642-61113-1

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