Reconstruction of Past Climatic Variability: Final Technical Report

Abstract

Results are reported from the first three years of a five-year project to reconstruct past climatic fluctuations in the Northern Hemisphere from variations in the growth rings of trees. The most significant result is the growing international collaboration stimulated by this research effort. The second is the development of 127 high-quality tree-ring chronologies from North America and Europe. Other developments include the establishment of the International Tree-Ring Data Bank, evaluation of multivariate techniques for calibration and analysis, the selection of a revised data set for reconstructing North American climate, and several other technical achievements. These results now will be used to improve reconstructions of past climate and to expand them to eastern North America and Europe.