Warm season tree growth and precipitation over Mexico

Abstract

We have developed a network of 18 new tree ring chronologies to examine the history of warm season tree growth over Mexico from 1780 to 1992. The chronologies include Douglas fir (Pseudotsuga menziesii (Mirb.) Franco) and Montezuma pine (Pinus montezumae Lamb.) latewood width, and Montezuma bald cypress (Taxodium mucronatum Ten.) total ring width. They are located in southwestern Texas, the Sierra Madre Oriental, Sierra Madre Occidental, and southern Mexico as far south as Oaxaca. Seven of these chronologies are among the first precipitation sensitive tree ring records from the American tropics. Principal component analysis of the chronologies indicates that the primary modes of tree growth variability are divided north and south by the Tropic of Cancer. The tree ring data in northern Mexico (PC1) are most sensitive to June–August rainfall, while the data from southern Mexico (PC2) are sensitive to rainfall in April–June. We find that the mode of tree growth variability over southern Mexico is significantly correlated with the onset of the North American Monsoon. Anomalies in monsoon onset, spring precipitation, and tree growth in southern Mexico all tend to be followed by precipitation anomalies of opposite sign later in the summer over most of central Mexico.