The great majority of dendroclimatological work in Australia has thus far relied on ring-width chronologies only. We report novel results from a pilot study that show the potential to develop density-based climatically sensitive chronologies from two long-lived conifers endemic to Tasmania: Pencil Pine and Celery Top Pine. Cross-dating of average ring density profiles within each of the two sites examined was comparable with the better replicated ring-width chronologies from the sites. Cross-dating potential for maximum density was also indicated. Correlations between density and climate for both species were stronger and more persistent across a window of several months than correlations between ring width and climate. These stronger correlations suggest that temperature reconstructions based on average density may be possible. The ability to develop high resolution temperature-sensitive chronologies would allow for spatial comparisons across regions such as Tasmania that are affected by multiple broad-scale climate systems. A particularly novel result was the finding that maximum density was significantly related to stream-flow at the end of the growing season. Further work is required to assess the potential to reconstruct temperature, and to reconstruct stream-flow for important Tasmanian catchments over the past 500-800 years.

Item Type:	Refereed Article
Keywords:	Australia, celery top pine, dendroclimatology, pencil pine, Tasmania, wood density
Research Division:	Biological Sciences
Research Group:	Plant Biology
Research Field:	Plant Physiology
Objective Division:	Environment
Objective Group:	Flora, Fauna and Biodiversity
Objective Field:	Mountain and High Country Flora, Fauna and Biodiversity
UTAS Author:	Downes, GM (Dr Geoff Downes)
UTAS Author:	Grose, MR (Dr Michael Grose)
ID Code:	118126
Year Published:	2012
Web of Science® Times Cited:	6
Deposited By:	Plant Science
Deposited On:	2017-07-05
Last Modified:	2017-10-16
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