Climate change detection and attribution using tree rings

This talk presents how tree-ring paleoclimate data can improve our ability to detect and attribute climate change, particularly when short observational records and high natural variability increase uncertainty in future projections. Using three case studies, I show how using both tree-ring records and climate general circulation models can improve our understanding of climate change detection and attribution. In high-latitude northwest North America, high-resolution cellular-scale measurements of tree-ring data improve proxy-model agreement for long-term temperature variability, reducing the risk of false positives in attributing trends to anthropogenic forcing. I also demonstrate how internal variability, along with the biological nature of tree-ring data, can complicate the interpretation of post-volcanic eruption cooling in the paleoclimate record. Finally, I will introduce recent work using sub-seasonal tree-ring data to reconstruct extreme precipitation and atmospheric river activity in Southern California.

MID 989 5660 0133