NOAA/WDS Paleoclimatology - Allen - Butters - LGFR - ITRDB AUSL036

We have produced the first annually resolved, centennial-length tree-ring chronologies, based on tracheid radial diameter (TRD) and microfibril angle for south-eastern Australia (SEA) from what would commonly be considered a dendroclimatically suboptimal site. The chronologies exhibit a strong regional temperature signal for the austral summer (nominally November-April) that extends across much of SEA. The strength and spatial extent of the temperature-TRD correlations surpass those between the iconic Tasmanian Mt Read ring-width chronology and austral summer temperatures, and are more time-stable. We demonstrate that the value of wood property chronologies for their ability to improve the both the quality and the quantity of highly climate-sensitive series available for regional annual-resolution climate reconstructions, in data-sparse regions in Australasia and beyond, should be examined. In light of the 'divergence debate', the time-stability of relationships with climate, relative to other tree-ring proxies, also requires further investigation.