Bristlecone Pine Maximum Latewood Density from the California White Mountains and April-to-September Temperature Reconstruction for American Southwest

Bristlecone pine (Pinus longaeva) (PILO) trees have an exceptional longevity. Their tree-ring width (TRW) series offer valuable insights into climatic variability. Maximum latewood density (MXD) typically correlates better with temperature variations than TRW, yet PILO MXD records are non-existent due to methodological challenges related to their tree-ring structure. Here, we used an X-ray Computed Tomography (X-ray CT) toolchain on 51 PILO cores from the California White Mountains to build a chronology that correlates significantly (r=0.66, pAMJJAS_Tmean_reconstruction.txt - March-to-September mean temperature reconstruction for American Southwest (35° - 38° N; 119° - 115° W) based on the maximum latewood density of bristlecone pines from the California White MountainsPILO_MXD_RAW.rwl - raw measurements of the maximum latewood density of bristlecone pines from the California White Mountains derived from X-ray Computed TomographyPILO_MXD_chronology.txt - standardized chronology for maximum latewood density of bristlecone pines from the California White Mountains derived from X-ray Computed TomographyMatlab scripts folder contains scripts and related files to generate figures 2a,b,c, 3, 4 of the paper