Tree ring width measurements from Switzerland provide a climate proxy record covering 86 calendar years, from 45 to -41 years before present. The data were archived by NOAA's National Centers for Environmental Information under its World Data Service for Paleoclimatology. This specific chronology was last updated in the repository in 1991.
Use Cases
- Calibrating climate models by comparing tree ring width variations against known historical climate events.
- Reconstructing past temperature or precipitation anomalies for Western Europe using the ring width time series.
- Establishing a dated chronology for archaeological or geological samples in Switzerland via cross-dating with this series.
- Analyzing the frequency of narrow rings (potential stress years) to infer past drought or cold events.
Strengths
- Covers a continuous 86-year period (45 to -41 BP) for climate analysis.
- Sourced from the authoritative NOAA/NCEI World Data Service for Paleoclimatology.
Limitations
- The record is relatively short (86 years) for long-term climate trend analysis.
- Data is temporally stale, with no updates to the repository entry since 1991.
Provenance
- Source
- NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI) World Data Service (WDS) for Paleoclimatology.
- Collection Method
- Tree ring core sampling and width measurement (dendrochronology).
- Time Range
- 45 to -41 calendar years before present (BP).
- Freshness
- null
- Geography
- Switzerland, Western Europe.