Investigating Masking Effects of Age Trends on the Correlations among Tree Ring Proxies

Age-related trends are present in tree-ring widths (TRW), but their presence in tree rings isotope is debated. It is unclear how cambial age influences the relationships between TRW and isotopes. Tree-ring isotopes of alpine larch and cembran-pine trees showed only trends in the juvenile period (>...

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Autores principales: Tito Arosio, Malin Michelle Ziehmer-Wenz, Kurt Nicolussi, Christian Schlüchter, Markus Christian Leuenberger
Formato: article
Lenguaje:EN
Publicado: MDPI AG 2021
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Acceso en línea:https://doaj.org/article/0c4f7d0165264d3a8a3ab644568deee3
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Sumario:Age-related trends are present in tree-ring widths (TRW), but their presence in tree rings isotope is debated. It is unclear how cambial age influences the relationships between TRW and isotopes. Tree-ring isotopes of alpine larch and cembran-pine trees showed only trends in the juvenile period (>100 years), which might mask the inter-relations between tree-ring proxies during cambial age. This work tries to unmask the age-trend influences by examining the correlations in TRW—stable isotopes with and without age-trend correction. The non-detrended and linear-detrended values of TRW, of δD and δ<sup>18</sup>O showed significant correlations for ages up to 100 years, but not afterward. However, the correlation values, after spline or first-difference time-series detrending, were not age-related. Thus, detrending methods affect the correlations in the juvenile phase and may affect climate-related interpretations. The correlations between TRW and δ<sup>13</sup>C were not age-related, while those among the isotopes were significant throughout the ages. The correlation between δ<sup>13</sup>C and δD was the exception, as it became significant only after age > 100 years, suggesting a different use of reserves in the juvenile phase. In conclusion, the relationships among the tree-ring parameters are stable in all the different detrend scenarios after the juvenile phase, and they can be used together in multi-proxy paleoclimatic studies. The data of the juvenile phase can be used after spline-detrending or first-difference time-series calculation, depending on the purpose of the analysis to remove age-related trends. The work also provides clues on the possible causes of juvenile age trends.