British Isles Tree Ring Chronology from 169 BC to 28 BC

Tree ring width measurements from oak trees in Oxford, United Kingdom, provide a 197-year climate proxy record. The dataset is archived by NOAA's World Data Service for Paleoclimatology and was published in 1978. It is part of the International Tree-Ring Data Bank collection.

Use Cases

• Calibrating tree-ring width series to infer past summer temperatures or precipitation levels in the British Isles.
• Cross-dating the QURO (Quercus robur) chronology from the Otmoor and Oakley sites with other regional records to validate climate signals.
• Analyzing the growth anomaly around 28 BC to investigate potential volcanic or climatic events.
• Using the calendar years before present (BP) timeline to align this record with other paleoclimate proxies like ice cores or sediment layers.

Strengths

• Covers a continuous 197-year period from 169 BC to 28 BC.
• Part of the authoritative International Tree-Ring Data Bank (ITRDB) collection maintained by NOAA NCEI.

Limitations

• Temporal coverage is limited to a specific 197-year window in the late Iron Age.
• Geographic scope is restricted to two sites in Oxford, United Kingdom, limiting spatial representativeness.
• Data is temporally stale, with no updates since its original publication in 1978.

Provenance

Source

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

Collection Method

Tree ring analysis (dendrochronology) of oak (Quercus robur) samples.

Time Range

169 to -28 calendar years before present (BP), corresponding to 169 BC to 28 BC.

Freshness

1978-01-01

Geography

Oxford (Oakley and Otmoor), United Kingdom, British Isles.