Antelope Lake Tree Ring Chronology from 466 to 30 BCE

Tree ring width measurements from ponderosa pine (PIPO) trees near Antelope Lake, California, provide a climate proxy record. The chronology spans 496 years, from 466 to 30 calendar years before present (BP), archived by NOAA's World Data Service for Paleoclimatology. This dataset was contributed by researcher Holmes and last updated in the NOAA system in 1980.

Use Cases

• Reconstruct past precipitation or temperature anomalies by calibrating tree ring width series against instrumental climate data.
• Analyze growth trends and extreme narrow rings within the chronology to identify past drought events or climatic stresses.
• Cross-date this PIPO chronology with other regional tree ring collections to validate and extend climate reconstructions.
• Study the frequency and magnitude of climatic events in the Sierra Nevada region over a nearly 500-year pre-industrial period.

Strengths

• Covers a specific 496-year period from 466 to 30 BP, providing a multi-century climate record.
• Sourced from the authoritative NOAA/NCEI World Data Service for Paleoclimatology, ensuring archival stability.
• Focuses on a single species (Pinus ponderosa) at a defined location, reducing ecological confounding factors.

Limitations

• The data's last known update was in 1980, indicating potential staleness and lack of recent methodological revisions.
• Geographic coverage is limited to a single site in California, limiting broad spatial climate inferences.
• The raw data structure and specific measurement parameters (e.g., raw ring widths, standardized indices) are not described in the provided metadata.

Provenance

Source

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

Collection Method

Tree ring cores collected and measured to create a width chronology.

Time Range

466 to -30 calendar years BP (approximately 1484 CE to 30 BCE, depending on BP reference year).

Freshness

null

Geography

Antelope Lake, California, United States of America.