Development and Analysis of Climatically-Sensitive Tree-Ring Chronologies from Data-Sparse Sites Along the North Pacific Rim

This award is to support research that will develop new and extend existing tree ring records from the North Pacific Rim. These data will be analyzed to provide multi-century time series of coastal and oceanic conditions.

Field work will be undertaken to collect samples from northern Alaska, Canada, Russia and northern Japan during the first two years of the study. Ring width measurements will be cross-dated visual, graphical and computer assisted techniques. Tree ring data generated during this project will be used to evaluate several climate indices and reconstruct North Pacific sea surface temperatures.

The broader impacts of this proposed research are that it will lead to a better understanding of natural climate variability for the North Pacific region which in turn is critical for identifying anthropogenic signals in the short instrumental climate records. This information will help the community understand future climate change scenarios.