New Zealand climate over the last 500 years reconstructed from Libocedrus                 bidwillii Hook. f. tree-ring chronologies

Abstract. We evaluate a range of blue intensity (BI) tree-ring parameters in eight conifer species (12 sites) from Tasmania and New Zealand for their dendroclimatic potential, and as surrogate wood anatomical proxies. Using a dataset of ca. 10–15 trees per site, we measured earlywood maximum blue reflectance intensity (EWB), latewood minimum blue reflectance intensity (LWB) and the associated delta blue intensity (DB) parameter for dendrochronological analysis. No resin extraction was performed, impacting low frequency trends. Therefore, we focused only on the high frequency signal by detrending all tree-ring and climate data using a 20-year cubic smoothing spline. All BI parameters express low relative variance and weak signal strength compared to ring-width. Correlation analysis and principal component regression experiments identified a weak and variable climate response for most ring-width chronologies. However, for most sites, the EWB data, despite weak signal strength, expressed strong calibrations with summer temperatures. Significant correlations for LWB were also noted, but the sign of the relationship for most species is opposite to that reported for all conifer species in the Northern Hemisphere. DB performed well for the Tasmanian sites but explained minimal temperature variance in New Zealand. Using the full multi-species/parameter network, excellent summer temperature calibration was identified for both Tasmania and New Zealand ranging from 52 % to 78 % explained variance, with equally robust independent validation (Coefficient of Efficiency = 0.41 to 0.77). Comparison of the Tasmanian BI reconstruction with a wood anatomical reconstruction shows that these parameters record essentially the same strong high frequency summer temperature signal. Despite these excellent results, a substantial challenge exists with the capture of potential secular scale climate trends. Although DB, band-pass and other signal processing methods may help with this issue, substantially more experimentation is needed in conjunction with comparative analysis with ring density and quantitative WA measurements.

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Chronology development and climate response analysis of different New Zealand pink pine (Halocarpus biformis) tree-ring parameters

Canadian Journal of Forest Research ◽

10.1139/x98-028 ◽

1998 ◽

Vol 28 (4) ◽

pp. 566-573 ◽

Cited By ~ 15

Author(s):

Limin Xiong ◽

Naoki Okada ◽

Takeshi Fujiwara ◽

Sadaaki Ohta ◽

Jonathan G Palmer

Keyword(s):

New Zealand ◽

Tree Ring ◽

Ring Width ◽

Response Analysis ◽

Data Series ◽

Climate Response ◽

Climate Data ◽

Local Climate ◽

Latewood Density ◽

Earlywood Width

Seven different tree-ring parameters (total ring width, earlywood width, latewood width, maximum latewood density, minimum earlywood density, average earlywood density, and average latewood density) were obtained from pink pine (Halocarpus biformis Hook.) at one chronology site in New Zealand (NZ). The chronologies were analyzed individually and then compared with each other. The relationships between the different tree-ring parameters and climate data (NZ average and local climate data) are also presented. There were more significant climate response functions in the NZ national average climate series than that of local climate data series. Earlywood-related parameters (earlywood width, minimum density, and average earlywood density) were more sensitive to climate than those of latewood. Temperature during the NZ growth season (November-March) was found to be the most strongly related to tree growth. This study demonstrates that the use of both ring width and ring density data can increase the climate information obtained from ring widths and should lead to improved paleoclimate reconstructions in New Zealand.

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Decadally Resolved Lateglacial Radiocarbon Evidence from New Zealand Kauri

Radiocarbon ◽

10.1017/rdc.2016.86 ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 58 (4) ◽

pp. 709-733 ◽

Cited By ~ 22

Author(s):

Alan Hogg ◽

John Southon ◽

Chris Turney ◽

Jonathan Palmer ◽

Christopher Bronk Ramsey ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Climate Change ◽

Time Series ◽

New Zealand ◽

Tree Ring ◽

Younger Dryas ◽

Spatiotemporal Patterns ◽

Data Sets ◽

Central European ◽

The Last Glacial ◽

Significant Weakness

AbstractThe Last Glacial–Interglacial Transition (LGIT; 15,000–11,000 cal BP) was characterized by complex spatiotemporal patterns of climate change, with numerous studies requiring accurate chronological control to decipher leads from lags in global paleoclimatic, paleoenvironmental, and archaeological records. However, close scrutiny of the few available tree-ring chronologies and radiocarbon-dated sequences composing the IntCal13 14C calibration curve indicates significant weakness in 14C calibration across key periods of the LGIT. Here, we present a decadally resolved atmospheric 14C record derived from New Zealand kauri spanning the Lateglacial from ~13,100–11,365 cal BP. Two floating kauri 14C time series, curve-matched to IntCal13, serve as a 14C backbone through the Younger Dryas. The floating Northern Hemisphere (NH) 14C data sets derived from the YD-B and Central European Lateglacial Master tree-ring series are matched against the new kauri data, forming a robust NH 14C time series to ~14,200 cal BP. Our results show that IntCal13 is questionable from ~12,200–11,900 cal BP and the ~10,400 BP 14C plateau is approximately 5 decades too short. The new kauri record and repositioned NH pine 14C series offer a refinement of the international 14C calibration curves IntCal13 and SHCal13, providing increased confidence in the correlation of global paleorecords.

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Extension of New Zealand kauri (Agathis australis) tree-ring chronologies into Oxygen Isotope Stage (OIS) 3

Journal of Quaternary Science ◽

10.1002/jqs.1075 ◽

2006 ◽

Vol 21 (7) ◽

pp. 779-787 ◽

Cited By ~ 35

Author(s):

Jonathan Palmer ◽

Andrew Lorrey ◽

Chris S. M. Turney ◽

Alan Hogg ◽

Mike Baillie ◽

...

Keyword(s):

New Zealand ◽

Oxygen Isotope ◽

Tree Ring ◽

Oxygen Isotope Stage

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Do Southern Hemisphere tree rings record past volcanic events?

10.5194/cp-2021-171 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Philippa Ann Higgins ◽

Jonathan Gray Palmer ◽

Chris S. M. Turney ◽

Martin Sogaard Andersen ◽

Fiona Johnson

Keyword(s):

New Zealand ◽

Southern Hemisphere ◽

Tree Ring ◽

Climate Models ◽

Species Group ◽

Superposed Epoch Analysis ◽

Volcanic Events ◽

Temperature Reconstructions ◽

Epoch Analysis ◽

The Impact

Abstract. Much of our knowledge about the impacts of volcanic events on climate comes from proxy records. However, little is known about the impact of volcanoes on trees from the Southern Hemisphere. We investigated whether volcanic signals could be identified in ring widths from eight New Zealand dendrochronological species, using superposed epoch analysis. We found that most species are good recorders of volcanic dimming and that the magnitude and persistence of the post-event response can be broadly linked to plant life history traits. Across species, site-based factors, particularly altitude and exposure to prevailing conditions, are more important determinants of the strength of the volcanic response than the species. We then investigated whether proxy selection impacts the magnitude of post-volcanic cooling in tree-ring based temperature reconstructions by developing two new multispecies reconstructions of New Zealand summer (December–February) temperature. Both reconstructions showed temperature anomalies remarkably consistent with studies based on instrumental temperature, and with the ensemble mean response of climate models, demonstrating that New Zealand ring widths are reliable indicators of regional volcanic climate response. However, we also found that volcanic response is complex, with positive, negative, and neutral responses identified – sometimes within the same species group. Species-wide composites thus tend to underestimate the volcanic response. The has important implications for the development of future tree ring and multiproxy temperature reconstructions from the Southern Hemisphere.

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