HR: 10:50h
AN: U42B-03    [Abstracts]
TI: Relationships between tree growth in western Canada and the Pacific Ocean
AU: * Watson, E
EM: emma.watson@rogers.com
AU: Luckman, B H
EM: luckman@uwo.ca
AF: University of Western Ontario, Department of Geography, London, ON N6A 5C2, Canada
AU: Luckman, B H
EM: luckman@uwo.ca
AF: University of Western Ontario, Department of Geography, London, ON N6A 5C2, Canada
AB: Tree-ring chronologies have been developed from a number of species growing in different environments (e.g. upper and lower treeline) in the western Cordillera of Canada (from the U.S. border to the Yukon; and from interior B.C. across the Rockies). Chronologies from these different species have a range of responses to climate parameters and have been useful for reconstructing precipitation and temperature. More recently these chronologies have been combined to develop reconstructions of climate-related parameters including glacier mass balance and streamflow both of which are strongly related to winter precipitation receipts. In this paper we present results from work that explores relationships between measured and reconstructed climate variables from the western Cordillera and conditions in the Pacific Ocean. We focus on the extent to which variations in the Pacific Ocean (captured by large-scale indices and correlation patterns with SSTs) can explain variance in climate parameters from the region for different seasons (e.g. summer drought versus winter precipitation). We also comment on the utility of these tree-ring data for reconstructing past conditions in the Pacific based on the strength of observed relationships. Preliminary results from recent sampling expeditions that attempt to target winter snowpack sensitive tree-ring chronologies are also presented.
DE: 0473 Paleoclimatology and paleoceanography (3344, 4900)
SC: Union [U]
MN: 2007 Joint Assembly