Devil's Bathtub Tree Ring Chronology From Arizona

Tree ring width measurements from a single site in Arizona provide a 267-year paleoclimate record. The data spans from 230 to -37 calendar years before present, with negative values indicating years after 1950. NOAA's National Centers for Environmental Information archived this dataset in 1987 as part of its Paleoclimatology World Data Service.

Use Cases

• Reconstruct past precipitation levels by analyzing annual tree ring width variations.
• Calibrate regional climate models using the precisely dated chronology from 230 to -37 BP.
• Compare this site's growth patterns with other ITRDB chronologies to identify broad climate events.
• Investigate the response of PIED (Pinus edulis) to specific volcanic or climatic events recorded in the rings.

Strengths

• Provides a continuous, precisely dated 267-year chronology for climate analysis.
• Sourced from the authoritative International Tree-Ring Data Bank (ITRDB) via NOAA NCEI.

Limitations

• The dataset is from a single site (AZ516), limiting spatial representativeness.
• The last update was in 1987, indicating the raw data and metadata may be stale.
• Sample depth (number of trees sampled per year) is unknown, affecting statistical confidence.

Provenance

Source

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

Collection Method

Tree core samples analyzed to measure ring widths, dated via dendrochronology.

Time Range

230 to -37 calendar years before present (BP).

Freshness

null

Geography

Arizona, United States of America.