NOAA/WDS Paleoclimatology - Ngoma - Kabompo - BAPR - ITRDB ZMB002

Climate has been demonstrated to change at different scales for as far back as we have been able to reconstruct it. However, anthropogenic factors have accelerated and are predicted to cause significant changes in temperature and precipitation around the globe. As a consequence, vegetation is being affected. To understand the historical behaviour of individual tree species and have insight on the potential effects of climate change, tree-ring studies have been applied. In this study, we examined a genus new to dendrochronology, namely Baikiaea plurijuga (Spreng.) Harm that dominates the Zambezi teak forests in Zambia with the objective of determining whether B. plurijuga forms annual rings and if so, whether these rings are cross-datable. We further determined the relationship between ring- width of B. plurijuga and climatic variables with the aim of understanding the potential climate change effects on the growth of these species in Zambia. We collected tree-ring samples from three Zambezi Teak forest reserves: Zambezi, Ila, and Masese located in Kabompo, Namwala, and Sesheke study sites respectively. Our examination of wood anatomical structures reviewed that the wood of B. plurijuga is diffuse porous and forms annual rings which were confirmed with samples of known age. The analysis resulted in three strong tree-ring chronologies of B. plurijuga. These chronologies were correlated with climate data from local weather stations which correlated negatively with evaporation and temperature and positively with rainfall. Our regression analysis indicated that evaporation has the highest influence on tree growth at all the study sites compared to temperature and rainfall alone. Evaporation in November and March, for example, explained almost a third of the radii’s variance at the Namwala and Sesheke sites. The likely future temperature increase and rainfall decrease that are projected by IPCC for Southern Africa are likely to adversely affect B. plurijuga in Zambia.

本归档古气候学研究（Paleoclimatology Study）可通过美国国家海洋和大气管理局国家环境信息中心（NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, NCEI）下属的古气候学世界数据服务（World Data Service for Paleoclimatology, WDS）获取。该数据集对应的NCEI研究类型为树木年轮（Tree Ring）。数据集包含树木年轮相关参数，其采集地理位置位于非洲东部的赞比亚。数据集的时间覆盖范围为距今-20至-63个日历年份（BP，即Before Present，距今年份基准）。如需了解参数与研究地点的详细信息，请查阅元数据。使用该数据集时，请引用本研究。