Rhyolite Canyon Tree Ring Chronology From 310 BC

NOAA/WDS Paleoclimatology archives tree ring width data from ponderosa pine trees in Rhyolite Canyon, Arizona. The chronology spans 347 years, from 310 BC to 37 BC. NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI) published this dataset in 1987.

Use Cases

• Reconstruct past climate conditions like precipitation or temperature from annual tree-ring width measurements.
• Calibrate and extend regional tree-ring chronologies for the southwestern United States using the Rhyolite Canyon site data.
• Analyze long-term ecological growth patterns of ponderosa pine (PIPO) in response to historical environmental events.
• Validate climate model simulations for the pre-Common Era period using the 347-year proxy record.

Strengths

• Chronology covers a 347-year time period from 310 BC to 37 BC.
• Data is curated and archived by the authoritative NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI).

Limitations

• Dataset is temporally stale, with a last update date of 1987.
• Geographic coverage is limited to a single site (Rhyolite Canyon, Arizona).
• Sample size and replication statistics for the underlying tree cores are unknown.

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, PIPO) samples.

Time Range

310 BC to 37 BC (calendar years before present).

Freshness

null

Geography

Rhyolite Canyon, Arizona, United States of America.