Tree-ring based reconstruction of summer temperatures at the Columbia Icefield, Alberta, Canada, AD 1073-1983

Luckman, B. H., Briffa, K. R., Jones, P. D. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5032-5493 and Schweingruber, F. H. (1997) Tree-ring based reconstruction of summer temperatures at the Columbia Icefield, Alberta, Canada, AD 1073-1983. The Holocene, 7 (4). pp. 375-389. ISSN 0959-6836

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Abstract

April-August temperatures are reconstructed from maximum latewood density and ring-width data for a tree-line site in the Canadian Rockies of Alberta close to Athabasca Glacier. The chronology primarily utilizes Picea engelmannii with some Abies lasiocarpa snags. This reconstruction (AD 1073-1983) is the longest densitometrically based summer temperature record from boreal North America. Mean temperatures from 1101-1900 were 0.71°C below the 1961-1990 reference period and 0.33°C below the 1891-1990 mean of the instrumental record. The coldest interval was the first half of the nineteenth century and the major cold intervals. c. 1200-1350, 1690s and the nineteenth century, coincide with local and regional periods of glacier expansion. Warmer periods. c. 1350-1440 and in the present century, are also periods of higher tree-line or tree-line advance at the site. The 1961-1990 reference period is clearly warmer than any equivalent-length period over the last 800 years. This record of summer warmth reinforces evidence of significant warming at several high-altitude and high-latitude sites around the Northern Hemisphere in the late twentieth century. The reconstruction also indicates that glacier advances of the 'Little Ice Age' in the Rockies occurred during a period of fluctuating climatic conditions rather than a long period of sustained cold of several centuries duration.

Item Type:	Article
Faculty \ School:	Faculty of Science > School of Environmental Sciences University of East Anglia Research Groups/Centres > Theme - ClimateUEA
UEA Research Groups:	Faculty of Science > Research Groups > Climatic Research Unit Faculty of Science > Research Groups > Centre for Ocean and Atmospheric Sciences
Depositing User:	Rosie Cullington
Date Deposited:	20 Jul 2011 09:42
Last Modified:	22 May 2024 16:30
URI:	https://ueaeprints.uea.ac.uk/id/eprint/33960
DOI:	10.1177/095968369700700401

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