Journal article 739 views 119 downloads
Historical droughts recorded in extended Juniperus procera ring-width chronologies from the Ethiopian Highlands
,
M. Koprowski,
L. P. Zhou,
P. Gao,
A. P. Williams,
Z. Eshetu,
T. H. G. Wils
International Journal of Biometeorology, Volume: 64, Issue: 5, Pages: 739 - 753
Swansea University Author:
Iain Robertson
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DOI (Published version): 10.1007/s00484-020-01863-7
Abstract
In the Horn of Africa, little is known about temporal changes in hydroclimate owing to the influence of multiple weather systems, the complex terrain, and the sparse instrumental records. Absolutely dated tree-ring records offer the potential to extend our understanding of climate into the pre-instr...
| Published in: | International Journal of Biometeorology |
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| ISSN: | 0020-7128 1432-1254 |
| Published: |
Springer Science and Business Media LLC
2020
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| Online Access: |
Check full text
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| URI: | https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa53428 |
| Abstract: |
In the Horn of Africa, little is known about temporal changes in hydroclimate owing to the influence of multiple weather systems, the complex terrain, and the sparse instrumental records. Absolutely dated tree-ring records offer the potential to extend our understanding of climate into the pre-instrumental era, but tree-ring studies in this region, and indeed all of tropical Africa, have been rare largely due to lack of an annual climate cycle that reliably produces annual tree-rings. In this study, 40 cores were obtained from 31 Juniperus procera trees growing in the grounds of Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo churches in the Gonder region of Ethiopia. The samples were cross-dated using a re-iterative process involving identifying anatomical features from high-resolution images. The tentative ring-width chronologies were revised after the determination of bomb-peak accelerator mass spectrometry radiocarbon dates. Individual series were significantly correlated to the respective master chronologies (r > 0.55; P < 0.05), and expressed population signal values ranged from 0.55 to 0.92. Historical drought years were successfully traced in the chronologies by pointer year analysis. This study confirms that Juniperus procera growing in areas of unimodal precipitation exhibits annual tree-rings and offers the potential as an indirect measure of past climate. |
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| Keywords: |
Annual tree-rings; Tropical dendrochronology; Radiocarbon dating; Pointer years; The Blue Nile River basin |
| College: |
Faculty of Science and Engineering |
| Funders: |
Field sampling and part of laboratory analysis was financially supported by a National Geographic Global Exploration Fund grant GEFNE80-13 (Drought reconstruction in the Horn of Africa). |
| Issue: |
5 |
| Start Page: |
739 |
| End Page: |
753 |