The Ancient Blue Oak Woodlands of California: Longevity and Hydroclimatic History

Earth Interactions

D. W.Stahle¹ 

关键词: Ancient blue oak woodland;    Quercus douglasii;    Tree-ring analysis;    Winter precipitation;    Atmospheric rivers;    San Francisco Bay salinity;   

DOI  :  10.1175/2013EI000518.1

学科分类：地球科学(综合)

来源: American Geophysical Union

【 摘 要 】

AbstractAncient blue oak trees are still widespread across the foothills of the Coast Ranges, Cascades, and Sierra Nevada in California. The most extensive tracts of intact old-growth blue oak woodland appear to survive on rugged and remote terrain in the southern Coast Ranges and on the foothills west and southwest of Mt. Lassen. In the authors' sampling of old-growth stands, most blue oak appear to have recruited to the canopy in the middle to late nineteenth century. The oldest living blue oak tree sampled was over 459 years old, and several dead blue oak logs had over 500 annual rings. Precipitation sensitive tree-ring chronologies up to 700 years long have been developed from old blue oak trees and logs. Annual ring-width chronologies of blue oak are strongly correlated with cool season precipitation totals, streamflow in the major rivers of California, and the estuarine water quality of San Francisco Bay. A new network of 36 blue oak chronologies records spatial anomalies in growth that arise from l...

【 授权许可】

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