Imperiled Ecosystems in a Shifting Climate
2016 Atlantic White Cedar Symposium
May 24-26, 2016

Hotel 1620, 180 Water St., Plymouth, MA

Climate controls on the annual growth rings in Atlantic White cedar

Authors: Jessie Pearl (1), Kevin Anchukaitis (1), Neil Pederson (2), Dan Bishop (2), Jeff Donnelly (3)

1. Laboratory of Tree-Ring Research, University of Arizona, Tucson AZ, USA; 2. Harvard Forest, Petersham, MA, USA; 3. Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Woods Hole, MA, USA jpearl@email.arizona.edu

Atlantic White cedar, Chamaecyparis thyoides, is exceptional amongst trees in the northeastern United States in that its annual growth rings have been shown to correlate significantly with temperature. This correlation is exceptional because most other northeastern trees have a mixed climate signal of both temperature and precipitation. Here, we update the existing inland Atlantic White cedar (AWC) chronology network through 2015 and also evaluate the reliability of coastal AWC as a climate and paleotempestology proxy. Inland New England AWC exhibited high temperature sensitivity, while cedar forests in close proximity to the coast did not. We compared the annual growth variability in coastal AWC stands against gridded and local climate data, as well as with large-scale features of the North Atlantic ocean-atmosphere system. In contrast to the temperature signal contained within inland AWC stands, growth of coastal trees was controlled primarily growth control by precipitation and soil moisture. Coastal geology, climate, and extreme weather are environmental stressors that differ from inland sites and coastal forests. A network of AWC tree-ring width chronologies therefore provides complementary novel insights into New England climate over the past few centuries.

Key words: Atlantic white cedar, paleotemperature, paleotempestology, dendrochronology

Jessie Pearl is a PhD student at the University of Arizona’s Laboratory of Tree Ring Research. She began her dissertation work as a student in the MIT/ Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute joint program, gathering an interest in how the coastal climate, ecology, and geology evolve over time. She is now at the world’s premier dendrochronology lab in Tucson Arizona, studying Atlantic White cedar and the insights they give into the climate of New England.