Tree ring width measurements from the Spring Mountains in Nevada provide a 480-year climate proxy record. The data covers the period from 450 to -30 calendar years before present. It was archived by NOAA's National Centers for Environmental Information as part of the PAGES North America 2K initiative.
Use Cases
- Reconstruct historical temperature or precipitation anomalies for the Spring Mountains region using the tree-ring width time-series.
- Calibrate regional climate models by comparing the proxy data from this chronology with instrumental records.
- Analyze the frequency of extreme climatic events, such as droughts, within the 480-year span of the record.
- Cross-date and validate other tree-ring chronologies from the southwestern United States using this dataset.
Strengths
- Provides a 480-year continuous proxy record for climate analysis.
- Sourced from NOAA's authoritative World Data Service for Paleoclimatology.
- Part of the standardized PAGES North America 2K network for continental-scale studies.
Limitations
- The temporal coverage ends at -30 BP, making the most recent data points over 2000 years old.
- Geographic coverage is limited to a single site (Spring Mountains, Nevada).
- The dataset's last known update was in 1980, indicating potential staleness in metadata or curation.
Provenance
- Source
- NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI), World Data Service (WDS) for Paleoclimatology.
- Collection Method
- Tree-ring analysis (dendrochronology).
- Time Range
- 450 to -30 calendar years before present (BP).
- Freshness
- null
- Geography
- Spring Mountains, Nevada, United States of America.