Reconstructing Population Dynamics of Yellow-Cedar in Declining Stands: Baseline Information from Tree Rings

Abstract

Abstract Yellow-cedar (Chamaecyparis nootkatensis (D. Don) Spach) forests of coastal British Columbia are apparently experiencing decline in a manner similar to that observed in southeastern Alaska. In this pilot study, we collect tree-ring data from live and standing dead yellow-cedar trees from four declining sites on the North Coast of British Columbia. We use this data to compare growth patterns at our sites to those of yellow-cedar trees at non-declining and declining sites in southwestern British Columbia and southeastern Alaska and, in addition, to assess the possibility of reconstructing yellow-cedar population dynamics in declining stands using dendrochronology. We found coherent growth patterns (i.e. marker years and periods of suppression) among yellow-cedar chronologies from non-declining and declining sites across a broad geographic range as well as unique growth patterns between our chronologies from declining sites and those from declining sites in nearby Alaska. Using outer-ring dates of i...