Pennsylvania Tree Ring Chronology from 410 to 31 BC

410 tree-ring width measurements from the East Branch Swamp site in Pennsylvania provide a climate proxy record. This chronology spans from 410 to 31 calendar years before present, created by Cook and archived by NOAA's World Data Service for Paleoclimatology. The dataset was last updated in the NOAA NCEI archives in 1981.

Use Cases

• Reconstruct past temperature or precipitation anomalies by analyzing the tree-ring width series as a climate proxy.
• Calibrate the chronology against other regional records using the documented calendar year before present (BP) timeline.
• Study forest growth responses to historical climate events using the site-specific parameters from Pennsylvania.
• Validate climate model simulations for the last few centuries BC with this high-resolution proxy time series.

Strengths

• Covers a 441-year high-resolution period from 410 to 31 BC.
• Sourced from the authoritative NOAA NCEI World Data Service for Paleoclimatology.

Limitations

• The dataset's last update was in 1981, potentially lacking modern reanalysis or standardization.
• Limited to a single site (East Branch Swamp, Pennsylvania), reducing spatial representativeness.
• Unknown sample depth (number of trees) and measurement precision for the ring-width series.

Provenance

Source

NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI), World Data Service for Paleoclimatology.

Collection Method

Tree ring analysis (dendrochronology), likely measuring ring widths from core samples.

Time Range

410 to -31 calendar years before present (BP).

Freshness

1981-01-01

Geography

East Branch Swamp, Pennsylvania, United States of America.