Interannual Red Pine Climate Response in the Upper Great Lakes Region, USA

Keywords: red pine, tree-rings, Great Lakes, climate response
Session Type: Virtual Paper
Day: Friday
Session Start / End Time: 4/9/2021 04:40 PM (Pacific Time (US & Canada)) - 4/9/2021 05:55 PM (Pacific Time (US & Canada))
Room: Virtual 30

Abstract

The iconic red pine (Pinus resinosa Ait.) of northern Minnesota are part of a growing network of tree-ring chronologies aimed at understanding climate dynamics in the Upper Great Lakes Region. Red pine have been widely used in tree-ring based studies to investigate past fire events and climate variability across their natural range. However, these studies have relied exclusively on annual ring-widths. In this study we develop annual and inter-annual (i.e., earlywood and adjusted latewood) chronologies from Itasca State Park to refine our understanding of red pine climate response in the region. Our chronologies date back to the early eighteenth century and display common growth and crossdating characteristics indicative of a significant common controlling mechanism. We rely on aggregated daily, monthly, and seasonal data from the University of Minnesota Itasca Biological Station meteorological station located within 5 kilometers of the sampling sites. Our findings suggest that total ring-width contains dampened attributes of both the temperature limited earlywood and moisture dependent latewood when evaluated at monthly and seasonal timescales. While there is a precedent for these findings, the ability to parse out the mixed climate signal of red pine and identify the seasonal shift in limiting factors indicates the potential of using these inter-annual chronologies in future climate reconstructions, particularly adjusted latewood. Additionally, we hope the methodologies outlined in this paper can serve as a guide for future red pine chronology development in the region.