Living and subfossil trees from glacier forefields are used to develop a 1119-year-long tree-ringwidth chronology. Strong cross-dating among ring-width series from sites up to 60 km apart and an analysis of sample homogeneity support combination of all samples into a single, regional composite chronology. Comparison with instrumental climate data indicates May through July temperatures of the growth year are the primary control on ring-widths. Multidecadal-length warm periods in western Prince William Sound during the past 800 years were centred on AD 1300, 1440 and possibly 1820. Multidecadal-length cool periods were centred on AD 1400, 1660 and 1870. This is the first tree-ring chronology from the Gulf of Alaska region to extend into the first millennium AD.
Bradley, R.S. and Jones, P.D.1993: ‘Little Ice Age’ summer temperature variations: their nature and relevance to recent global warming trends . The Holocene3, 367-376 .
2.
Bray, J.R. and Struik, G.J.1963: Forest growth and glacial chronology itain hemlock near in eastern British Columbia, and their relation to recent climatic trends . fness equal to 671, Canadian Journal of Botany41, 1245-1271 .
3.
Briffa, K.R. and Jones, P.D.1990: Basic chronology statistics and assessment. In Cook, E.R. and Kairiukstis, L.A. , editors, Methods of dendrochronology: applications in the environmental sciences, Boston: Kluwer Academic Publishers .
4.
Brown, H.P. , Panshin, A.J. and Forsaith, C.C.1949: Textbook of wood technology, volume 1. New York: McGraw-Hill Book Company .
5.
Cook, E.R. 1985: A time series approach to tree ring standardization: PhD dissertation, University of Arizona, Tucson.
6.
Cook, E.R. and Holmes, R.L.1984: User's manual for program ARSTAN. Laboratory of Tree Ring Research, University of Arizona, Tucson .
7.
Cook, E.R. and Kairiukstis, L.A. , editors, 1990: Methods of dendrochronology: applications in the environmental sciences. Boston: Kluwer Academic Publishers .
8.
Cook, E.R , Briffa, K.R. , Meko, D.M. , Graybill, D.A. and Funkhouser, G.1995: The ‘segment length curse’ in long tree-ring chronology development for palaeoclimatic studies . The Holocene5, 229-237 .
9.
Cooper, W.S.1942: Vegetation of the Prince William Sound region, Alska; with a brief excursion into post-Pleistocene climatic history . Ecological Monographs12, 2-22 .
10.
Cropper, J.P. and Fritts, H.C.1981: Tree-ring width chronologies from the north American Arctic . Arctic and Alpine Research13, 245-260 .
11.
D'Arrigo, R.D. and Jacoby, G.C.1992: A tree ring reconstruction of New Mexico winter precipitation and its relation to El Niño/Southern Oscillation events. In Diaz, H.F. and Markgraf, V. , editors, El Niño: historical and paleoclimatic aspects of the Southern Oscillation, New York: Cambridge University Press .
12.
Diaz, H.F. and Pulwarty, R.S.1994: An analysis of the time scales of variability in centuries-long ENSO-sensitive records in the last 1000 years . Climatic Change26, 317-342 .
13.
Farr, W.A. and Hard, J.S.1987: Multivariate analysis of climate along the southern coast of Alaska – some forestry implications. Research Paper PNW-RP-372, Portland, Oregon, US Department of Agriculture, Forest Service.
14.
Fritts, H.C.1976: Tree rings and climate. London: Academic Press .
15.
Holmes, R.L.1983: Computer-assisted quality control in tree-ring dating and measurement . Tree-Ring Bulletin43, 69-75 .
16.
Jacoby, G.C. and Ulan, L.D.1983: Tree ring indications of uplift at Icy Cape, Alaska, related to 1899 earthquakes . Journal of Geophysical Research88, 9305-9313 .
17.
Jacoby, G.C. , D'Arrigo, R.D. and Luckman, B.H.1996: Millennial and near-millennial scale dendroclimatic studies in northern North America. In Jones, P.D. , Bradley, R.S. and Jouzel, J. , editors, Climatic variations and forcing mechanisms of the last 2000 years, NATO ASI Series volume 141, 9-41.
18.
Latif, M. and Barnett, T.P.1994: Causes of decadal climate variability over the North Pacific and North America . Science266, 634-637 .
19.
Luckman, B.H. 1996: Dendroglaciology at Peyto Glacier, Alberta, Canada . In Dean, J.S. , Meko, D.M. and Swetnam, T.W. , editors, Tree rings, environment and humanity, Proceedings of the International Conference, Tucson, Arizona, 17-21 May 1994.
20.
Mathews, W.H.1951: Historic and prehistoric fluctuations of alpine glaciers in the Mount Garibaldi map area, southwestern British Columbia . Journal of Geology59, 357-380 .
21.
Nicolussi, K. and Patzelt, G.1996: Reconstructing glacier history in Tyrol by means of tree-ring investigations . Zeitschrift für Gletscherkunde und Gläzialgeologie32, 207-215 .
22.
Overpeck, J.T.1995: Paleoclimatology and climate system dynamics . Reviews of Geophysics33, supplement, 863-871 .
23.
Peters, K. , Jacoby, G.C. and Cook, E.R.1982: Principal component analysis of tree ring series . Tree-Ring Bulletin41, 1-19 .
24.
Quinn, W.H. , Neal, V.T. and Antunez de Mayolo, S.E.1987: El Niño occurrences over the past four and a half centuries . Journal of Geophysical Research92, 14, 449-461 .
25.
Schweingruber, F.H. , Briffa, K.R. and Jones, P.D.1993: A tree-ring densitometric transect from Alaska to Labrador . International Journal of Biometeorology37, 151-169 .
26.
Viereck, L.A. and Little, E.L. Jr.1972: Alaska trees and shrubs. Fairbanks: University of Alaska Press .
27.
Wigley, T.M.L. , Briffa, K.R. and Jones, P.D.1984: On the average value of correlated time series, with applications in dendroclimatology and hydrometeorology . Journal of Climate and Applied Meteorology23, 201-213 .
28.
Wiles, G.C. and Calkin, P.E.1994: Late Holocene, high resolution glacial chronologies and climate, Kenai Mountains, Alaska . Geological Society of America Bulletin106, 281-303 .
29.
Wiles, G.C. , Barclay, D.J. and Calkin, P.E.1999: Tree-ring-dated ‘Little Ice Age’ histories of maritime glaciers from western Prince William Sound, Alaska. The Holocene 9, in press.
30.
Wiles, G.C. , D'Arrigo, R.D. and Jacoby, G.C.1996: Temperature changes along the Gulf of Alaska and the Pacific Northwest coast modeled from coastal tree rings . Canadian Journal of Forest Research26, 474-481 .
31.
Wiles, G.C. , D'Arrigo, R.D. and Jacoby, G.C.1998: Gulf of Alaska atmosphere-ocean variability over recent centuries inferred from coastal tree-ring records . Climatic Change38, 289-306 .
32.
Wilson, J.G. and Overland, J.E.1987: Meteorology. In Hood, D.W. and Zimmerman, S.T. , editors, The Gulf of Alaska, Washington DC: US Department of Commerce and US Department of Interior , 31-54.
