Fire History Reconstruction from Hidden Valley Tree Rings

Tree-ring fire scar data from Colorado's Hidden Valley area provides a proxy record of fire events over a 498-year period, from 450 to -48 calendar years before present. The dataset is archived by NOAA's National Centers for Environmental Information under its Paleoclimatology program. This study was published in 1998.

Use Cases

• Analyze fire_event_year and fire_scar_metrics to reconstruct the historical frequency and seasonality of wildfires.
• Correlate fire_interval data with other paleoclimate proxies to model climate-driven fire cycles.
• Map fire_history_parameters to the specific geographic location in Colorado for spatial analysis of past disturbance.

Strengths

• Covers a long temporal range of 498 calendar years (450 to -48 BP).
• Data is curated and archived by the authoritative NOAA NCEI World Data Service for Paleoclimatology.

Limitations

• The dataset's last update was in 1998, making it temporally stale for contemporary analysis.
• Specific sample size (row count), column details, and data formats are unknown from the metadata.

Provenance

Source

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

Collection Method

Data derived from tree-ring analysis (dendrochronology) of fire scars.

Time Range

450 to -48 calendar years before present (BP).

Freshness

1998-01-01

Geography

Hidden Valley SE, Colorado, United States Of America.