Abstract
Long instrumental or proxy climatic records are scarce for the Southern Hemisphere relative to many northern regions, but are essential for a global perspective of past climate variability. In this paper we describe two tree-ring width chronologies of pink pine which are the first published for Stewart Island, New Zealand (47°S, 168°E), one of the southernmost forested land masses on the globe. A chronology for western-central Stewart Island (Doughboy-Rakeahua) extends from 1682 to 1990; the other, for southern Stewart Island (Pegasus) from 1690 to 1991. Both series are positively correlated with warm-season surface air temperatures for southern New Zealand and vicinity. Although there are shorter intervals of comparable warmth, the highest 20-year periods of growth during the past 300 years occurred during the middle 1950s–1970s, coinciding with record warming since around 1950 in New Zealand. Chronologies developed from two related species: silver pine ( Lagarostrobus colensoi ) from Ahaura, western South Island, New Zealand, and huon pine ( Lagarostrobus franklinii ) from Tasmania also indicate recent warming which is unusual, although not statistically unprecedented, within the contexts of the past 642 and 2290 years of record, respectively.
Published Version
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