Austin Lake Tree Ring Chronology for Paleoclimate Reconstruction

NOAA's World Data Service for Paleoclimatology archives this tree ring dataset from Austin Lake in Canada's Northwest Territories. The chronology provides a 170-year time series, spanning from 132 to -38 calendar years before present. The National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI) published this study in 1988.

Use Cases

• Calibrating climate reconstruction models using the tree ring width series as a proxy for past temperature or precipitation.
• Analyzing the chronology for extreme growth years to identify historical drought or volcanic events.
• Cross-dating this site chronology with other ITRDB series to build regional climate networks.
• Studying long-term ecological trends by examining the growth parameter time series over the 170-year span.

Strengths

• Provides a 170-year continuous chronology from 132 to -38 BP.
• Part of the authoritative International Tree Ring Data Bank (ITRDB) collection curated by NOAA NCEI.

Limitations

• Temporal coverage is relatively short (170 years) compared to millennial-length tree ring chronologies.
• Data is geographically limited to a single site (Austin Lake) in the Northwest Territories.
• The dataset has not been updated since its publication in 1988, potentially lacking modern reanalysis.

Provenance

Source

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

Collection Method

Tree ring data collection and analysis by Schweingruber, following standard dendrochronological methods.

Time Range

132 to -38 calendar years before present.

Freshness

null

Geography

Austin Lake, Northwest Territories, Canada.