Dendrochronology of Abies Religiosa in Michoacan, Mexico

Abstract

An exploratory investigation of tree growth and climate relationships in Abies religiosa from Michoacan, Mexico, produced the first crossdated and standardized tree-ring chronology from the North American tropics. Pearson correlation coefficients and principal components response function analysis were employed. Results indicate that ring-width series from this species have moderately high signal-to-noise ratio (S/N = 13.42). A substantial percentage of the ring-width signal can be explained by instrumented monthly climate data, particularly spring precipitation and winter temperature. Although correlation between climate data and the tree-ring measurements indicate that growth of Abies religiosa is highly influenced by year-to-year climate variation, longer climate records and tree-ring chronologies are needed from this tropical region to improve understanding of climate -tree growth relationships, and for dendroclimatic reconstruction.