Medicine Valley Ponderosa Pine Tree Ring Chronology from 271 to -22 BP

NOAA/WDS Paleoclimatology archives a tree-ring chronology from Ponderosa Pine (PIPO) in Medicine Valley, Arizona. Data coverage spans from 271 to -22 calendar years before present, indicating a 293-year record. The dataset is maintained by NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information.

Use Cases

• Calibrating regional climate models using tree-ring width as a proxy for past precipitation and temperature.
• Analyzing long-term drought frequency and severity in the southwestern United States from the ring-width time series.
• Cross-dating archaeological wood samples from the Arizona region against this established master chronology.
• Studying the growth response of Ponderosa Pine to climatic extremes recorded in individual ring measurements.

Strengths

• 293-year temporal coverage provides a multi-century climate record.
• Data is curated and archived by the authoritative NOAA World Data Service for Paleoclimatology.

Limitations

• Record ends at -22 BP (1972 CE), lacking recent decades of climate data.
• Geographic scope is limited to a single valley in Arizona, reducing regional generalizability.
• Specific sample depth, measurement variables, and potential missing years within the range are unknown from metadata.

Provenance

Source

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

Collection Method

Tree-ring data collected from Ponderosa Pine (Pinus ponderosa).

Time Range

271 to -22 calendar years before present.

Freshness

null

Geography

Medicine Valley, Arizona, United States of America.