Tree ring width and density evidence of climatic and potential forest change in Alaska

1995/06/01 by Gordon C. Jacoby, Rosanne D’Arrigo · 7 citations
Earth and Planetary Sciences · Environmental Science · #Tree-ring climate responses #Plant Water Relations and Carbon Dynamics #Forest ecology and management #Dendrochronology #Taiga #Boreal #Physical geography #Climate change #Environmental science #Period (music) #Dendroclimatology #Tree line #Climatology #Atmospheric sciences #Geography #Geology #Forestry #Oceanography #Archaeology

paper · doi:10.1029/95gb00321

openalex publication_date 1995/06/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/06/11

Abstract

Ring width and density measurements from the same trees can produce distinctly different climatic information. Ring width variations and recorded data in central and northern Alaska indicate annual temperatures increased over the past century, peaked in the 1940s, and are still near the highest level for the past 3 centuries. Density variations indicate summer temperatures are now warm but not above some previous levels occurring prior to this century. The early cooler period, corresponding to the Little Ice Age, was interrupted by brief warm intervals. The recent increase in temperatures combined with drier years may be changing the tree response to climate and raising the potential for some forest changes in Alaskan and other boreal forests.

Citations

• Reconstructed Northern Hemisphere annual temperature since 1671 based on high-latitude tree-ring data from North America
• Global climate changes as forecast by Goddard Institute for Space Studies three‐dimensional model

Cited by

• Reduced sensitivity of recent tree-growth to temperature at high northern latitudes
• Arctic Environmental Change of the Last Four Centuries
• Seeing the Wood from the Trees
• Large-scale temperature inferences from tree rings: a review
• Proxy climatic and environmental changes of the past 1000 years
• On the ‘Divergence Problem’ in Northern Forests: A review of the tree-ring evidence and possible causes
• Hockey stick graph (global temperature) [wikipedia]