Tree-ring width measurements from oak trees in Bavaria, Germany, provide a climate proxy record. The chronology covers 116 years from 390 to 274 calendar years before present. NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information archives this paleoclimatology study for the World Data Service.
Use Cases
- Calibrating regional climate models using the tree-ring width time-series as a temperature/moisture proxy.
- Cross-dating archaeological wood samples from Southern Germany against this master chronology.
- Analyzing the frequency of narrow rings (indicating stress years) within the 116-year record to infer past drought events.
Strengths
- 116-year continuous chronology from 390 to 274 BC provides a fixed temporal baseline.
- Data is curated and archived by NOAA NCEI under the World Data Service for Paleoclimatology, ensuring formal stewardship.
Limitations
- The sample size (number of individual tree cores) is unknown, limiting assessment of statistical robustness.
- Geographic coverage is limited to a specific location in Bavaria, Germany, reducing regional representativeness.
- The record ends over 2200 years ago, with no overlap with instrumental climate data for direct calibration.
Provenance
- Source
- NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI), World Data Service (WDS) for Paleoclimatology.
- Collection Method
- Dendrochronological analysis of oak tree rings.
- Time Range
- 390 to 274 calendar years before present (BC).
- Freshness
- null
- Geography
- Bavaria, Germany.