AN INVESTIGATION OF CERTAIN ASPECTS OF TREE GROWTH RATES IN RELATION TO CLIMATE IN THE CENTRAL CANADIAN BOREAL FOREST.

• Main Author: Mitchell,Val L.
• Other Authors: WISCONSIN UNIV MADISON DEPT OF METEOROLOGY
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: 1967
• Subjects: Meteorology; (*ARCTIC REGIONS; TREES); (*TREES; GROWTH(PHYSIOLOGY)); ECOLOGY; FACTOR ANALYSIS; CLIMATE; MEASUREMENT; RINGS; Arctic; Canada
• Online Access: http://www.dtic.mil/docs/citations/AD0655093; http://oai.dtic.mil/oai/oai?&verb=getRecord&metadataPrefix=html&identifier=AD0655093

Several thousand tree cores from central Canada were collected for the study. The core samples were surfaced by sanding and ring widths were measured using a partially automatic measuring device. An equation describing the growth trend of a tree-ring series was derived and used to eliminate the growth trend from the ring series. After the growth trend was removed, the data were standardized to form a tree-ring index series which was compared with appropriate climatological data. An index of average growth of black spruce was mapped and isolines of growth were found to parallel the tree line. A theoretical tree line was defined and located. Factor analysis was applied to tree-ring data from Canada and the western United States. The resulting set of eigenvectors show that there is more than one way in which a narrow or a wide ring is formed. The eigenvectors also show the combinations of climatic parameters that result in a narrow or a wide ring. (Author)