We use reflected-light image analysis to measure brightness of conifer rings, and we use brightness as an alternative to density for reconstructing climate. Using densitometry and image analysis, we measured cores from red spruce (Picea rubens Sarg.) growing at Elephant Mountain, Maine, and then compared statistical characteristics of density and brightness and climate-tree growth models using density or brightness. Auto- correlational and cross-correlational statistics of density and brightness do not differ substantially, and late wood density and brightness both correlate with April-May average temperature, which both tree-ring variables reconstruct equally well. April-May temperature was highly variable during most of the nineteenth century and was below average during the AD 1830s, 1870s and late 1880s. When done carefully, reflected-light image analysis can substitute for X-ray densitometry for measuring tree rings to reconstruct climate of the latest Holo cene.
Baron, W.R.1992a: Historical climate records from the northeastern United States, 1640 to 1900. In Bradley, R.S. and Jones, P.D., editors, Climate since A.D. 1500, London: Routledge , 74-91.
2.
- 1992b: 1816 in perspective: the View from the northeastern United States. In Harington, C.R., editor, The year without a summer? World climate in 1816. Ottawa : Canadian Museum of Nature, 124-44.
3.
Box, G.E.P. and Jenkins, G.M.1976: Time series analysis: forecasting and control. San Francisco: Holden-Day.
4.
Briffa, K.R., Jones, P.D. and Schweingruber, F.H.1988: Summer temperature patterns over Europe: a reconstruction from 1750 A.D. based on maximum latewood density indices of conifers. Quaternary Research30, 36-52.
5.
Chatfield, C.1975: The analysis of time series: theory and practice . London: Chapman and Hall.
6.
Clauson, M.L. and Wilson, J.B.1991: Comparison of video and x-ray for scanning wood density . Forest Products Journal41, 58-62. Cleaveland, M.K.1986: Climatic response of densitometric properties in semiarid site tree rings. Tree-Ring Bulletin46, 13-29.
7.
Conkey, L.E.1982: Eastern U.S. tree-ring widths and densities as indicators of past climate. PhD thesis, Department of Geosciences, University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona , 219 pp.
8.
- 1986: Red spruce tree-ring widths and densities in eastern North America as indicators of past climate. Quaternary Research26, 232-43. Draper, N. and Smith, H.1981: Applied regression analysis, second edition. New York: John Wiley and Sons.
9.
Fritts, H.C.1976: Tree rings and climate. New York: Academic Press. Fritts, H.C., Guiot, J., and Gordon, G.A.1990: Verification. In Cook, E.R. and Kairiukstis, L.A., editors, Methods of dendrochronology: applications in the environmental sciences, Boston: Kluwer Academic Publishers, 178-85.
10.
Grissino-Mayer, H.D.1993: An updated list of species used in tree-ring research: Tree-RingBulletin, 53, 18-45.
11.
Haston, L. and Michaelson, J.1994: Long-term central coastal California precipitation variability and relationships to El Nino-Southern Oscillation. Journal of Climate7, 1373-87.
12.
Jacoby, G.C., Ivanciu, I.S. and Ulan, L.D.1988: A 263-year record of summer temperature for northern Quebec reconstructed from tree-ring data and evidence of a major climatic shift in the early 1800s. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology64, 69-78.
13.
Jagels, R. and Telewski, F.1990: Computer-aided image analysis of tree rings. In Cook, E.R. and Kairiukstis, L.A., editors, Methods of dendrochronology: applications in the environmental sciences, Boston: Kluwer Academic Publishers, 76-93.
14.
Johnson, A.H., Cook, E.R. and Siccama, T.G.1988: Climate and red spruce growth and decline in the northern Appalachians. Proceedings of the National Academy of Science85, 5369-73.
15.
Karl, T.R., Williams Jr., C.N., and Quinlan, F.T.1990: United States Historical Climatology Network (HCN) serial temperature and precipitation data. Environmental Sciences Division Publication No. 3404. Oak Ridge, Tennessee: Carbon Dioxide Information Analysis Center, Oak Ridge National Laboratory.
16.
Montgomery, D.C. and Peck, E.A.1992: Introduction to linear regression analysis, second edition. New York: Wiley.
17.
Palmer, W.C.1965: Meteorological drought. US Department of Commerce Research Paper No. 45. Washington, DC: Office of Climatology.
18.
Park, W.-K. and Telewski, F.W.1993: Measuring maximum latewood density by image analysis at the cellular level. Wood and Fiber Science25, 326-32.
19.
Parker, M.L. and Henoch, W.E.S.1971: The use of Englemann spruce latewood density for dendrochronological purposes. Canadian Journal of Forest Research1, 90-98.
20.
Robinson, W.J. and Evans, R.1980: A microcomputer-based tree-ring measuring system. Tree-RingBulletin40, 59-64.
21.
Rohlf, F.J. and Sokol, R.R.1981: Statistical tables. San Francisco : W.H. Freeman and Company.
22.
Sheppard, P.R. and Graumlich, L.J. in press: A reflected-light video imaging system for tree-ring analysis of conifers. In Dean, J.S., Meko, D.M. and Swetnam, T.W. , editors, Tree rings, environment and humanity, Proceedings of the International Conference on Tree Rings, Environment, and Humanity, Tucson, Arizona, 17-21 May 1994.
23.
Telewski, F.W. and Jacoby, G.C.1987: Current status of X-ray densitometry. In Jacoby, G.C. and Hornbeck, J.W., compilers, Proceedings, International Symposium on Ecological Aspects of Tree-Ring Analysis, Springfield: Virginia: National Technical Information Service, 630-46.
24.
Telewski, F.W., Burns, J.M. and Ulan, L.1987: A thin-section technique for x-ray densitometric analysis of narrow tree-ring series. In Jacoby, G.C. and Hornbeck, J.W., compilers, Proceedings, International Symposium on Ecological Aspects of Tree-Ring Analysis, Springfield, Virginia: National Technical Information Service, 651-57.
25.
Thetford, R.D., D'Arrigo, R.D. and Jacoby, G.C.1991: An image analysis system for determining densitometric and ring-width time series. Canadian Journal of Forest Research21, 1544-49.
26.
Weisberg, S.1980: Applied linear regression. New York : John Wiley and Sons.
27.
Yanosky, T.M., Robinove, C.J. and Clark, R.G.1987: Progress in the image analysis of tree rings. In Jacoby, G.C. and Hornbeck, J.W., compilers, Proceedings, International Symposium on Ecological Aspects of Tree-Ring Analysis, Springfield, Virginia: National Technical Information Service, 658-65.
