SON2011

18
O timeseries was then compared with
PDO index, a longer timescale climate variable relating
to sea surface temperatures in the eastern Pacific,
from 1900 to 2011 (figure 6).

Moving averages compared over 5 years and 10
years
5-year average: r=-0.48, p=<0.001; 1900-2011
10 years r=-0.58, p=<0.001; 1900-2011
K.Lacey
1
, I.Robertson
1
, R.Clisby
1
, D.Miles
2
1
Department of Geography, Swansea University, UK
2
Oxford Dendrochronology Lab, Mapledurham, Oxfordshire, UK
1 J.occidentalis
Found in Sierra Nevada mountains and
Columbian Plateau in western North
America (figure 1).
4
18
O comparisons

Between 1906 and 1918 in figure 4 is a significant drop
of 10 in
18
O originally documented in a paper by
Berkelhammer and Stott (2008). It is clear that this drop
is not replicated in either SON2011 or the
18
O series
compiled by Bale et al (2010).

Long term trends here also indicate that no significant
changes have occurred in the long term atmospheric
patterns in the northern Pacific Ocean to affect the
isotope ratios found in trees in North America.
Climate records in J uniper trees
Sonora pass, California

6 Pacific Decadal Oscillation (PDO)
3 Ring width chronology
5 Ring widths vs decadal precipitation

r=0.25, p=<0.001; 1877-2011
Minimal decadal relationship in figure 5 suggests other
climatic changes have an influence on a decadal timescale.
Precipitation has some influence in the long term
18
O storage
in J.Occidentalis but this is not the only factor.


There is a good match between the peaks and troughs of each chronology. The common period of SON2011 and
SON1998 (1640-1998) also correlates very well, with a TV
BP
value of 7.4.
2 Study area
8 cores from 5 different trees collected at Sonora Pass (figure 2)
Sample location: N38 W119
Elevation of all samples between 2534m and 2709m
This new juniper dataset referred to henceforth as SON2011.
k.lacey@swansea.ac.uk
@_thekatspyjamas
ABSTRACT In the south-western USA the western Juniper tree species J.occidentalis has been investigated sparingly over the years with regard to use as a climate proxy. The aim of this project is
to add to and update current western Juniper ring-width chronologies, as well comparing and cross-dating with previous studies to consider the reliability of the results. In addition,
18
O isotopic ratios
are analysed and correlated with climate trends.

Current longest Juniper ring width
chronology covers 3507 years up to
1998 (Miles and Worthington,
1998), and is included in this study
for comparative and validation
purposes.

Referred to here as SON1998.

Common period of 1870-2011
between SON2011 and SON1998.

Figure 1 Photograph of one of the
juniper trees sampled at Sonora Pass
Figure2Location map of samples taken Sonora Pass, California, USA.
Figure 3 Latter part of SON1998 ring width time-series from 1835 to 1998, with SON2011 time-series
from 1840 up to 2011

Figure 4
18
O 1877-2011 from SON2011 with 5 year moving average, Bale et al
(2010) Bristlecone Pines with 5 year moving average, and Berkelhammer and Stott
(2008), average of two samples.

Figure6 Pacific Decadal Oscillation (PDO) in comparison with SON2011
18
O
time-series, 1900 to 2011 moving averages of 5 years (r=-0.48, p=<0.001) and 10
years (r=-0.58, p=<0.001).
Figure510-year moving average; SON2011
18
O in comparison with Dec-Mar
precipitation, Yosemite Park HQ. Both z-scored.
7 Preliminary conclusions
The previously found minimal correlation between

18
O and decadal precipitation suggests a cumulative
effect of other climate factors altered over decadal
timescales by fluctuations in the PDO, It is likely that
these climate variables are all linked to the PDO,
thereby leading to only a partial correlation with
individual climate variables, but an excellent overall
correlation with the PDO index.

References
Bale et al (2010) DOI 10.1177/0959683609348867
Berkelhammer and Stott (2008) DOI 10.1029/2007GC001803