Feather River Tree Ring Chronology for Climate Reconstruction

NOAA/WDS Paleoclimatology provides a tree-ring chronology from the Feather River Lake Oroville area in California. The data covers a period from 313 to -46 calendar years before present (BP), indicating it includes both historical and future-projected dates relative to the 1950 baseline. This archived study was published by NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information in 1996.

Use Cases

• Reconstructing past precipitation or streamflow for the Feather River basin using the tree-ring width chronology.
• Calibrating climate models by comparing the tree-ring proxy record with instrumental data for the California region.
• Analyzing long-term climate variability and extreme drought events over a ~360-year period captured in the ring sequences.
• Studying the response of local tree species (e.g., oaks or pines) to climatic forcing as recorded in annual growth rings.

Strengths

• Time series spans approximately 360 years (313 to -46 BP), providing a multi-century climate record.
• Data is curated and archived by the authoritative NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI).

Limitations

• The dataset is temporally stale, with a last updated date of 1996, potentially missing newer methodological refinements.
• Specific sample depth, replication statistics, and measurement parameters are unknown without accessing full metadata.

Provenance

Source

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

Collection Method

Tree-ring analysis (dendrochronology) from samples collected in the Feather River Lake Oroville area.

Time Range

313 to -46 calendar years before present (BP).

Freshness

1996-01-01

Geography

Feather River Lake Oroville area, California, United States of America.