Cerro Balitas Fire History Reconstruction from Tree Rings

Tree-ring fire-scar data from Cerro Balitas, New Mexico, spans 546 calendar years before present, from 500 to -46 BP. This fire history reconstruction was archived by NOAA's World Data Service for Paleoclimatology. The dataset was last updated in 1996.

Use Cases

• Analyze fire_event_year and fire_scar_evidence columns to reconstruct the frequency of historical wildfires.
• Correlate fire_interval data with regional paleoclimate proxy records to model climate-fire relationships.
• Map fire_occurrence locations against the geospatial coordinates to study spatial patterns of past fires.

Strengths

• Covers a 546-year period (500 to -46 BP) for long-term trend analysis.
• Data is curated and archived by the authoritative NOAA NCEI World Data Service.

Limitations

• Data recency is low, with a last update in 1996, potentially missing modern analytical methods.
• Geographic scope is limited to a single site (Cerro Balitas, New Mexico).
• Specific sample size (row count) and data granularity are unknown from the description.

Provenance

Source

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

Collection Method

Reconstructed from tree-ring fire-scar evidence.

Time Range

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

Freshness

1996-01-01

Geography

Cerro Balitas, New Mexico, United States of America.