Climate variability of the southern Amazon inferred by a multi-proxy tree-ring approach using Cedrela fissilis Vell

Daigard Ricardo Ortega Rodriguez; Raúl Sánchez-Salguero; Andrea Hevia; Daniela Granato-Souza; Bruno B L Cintra; Bruna Hornink; Laia Andreu-Hayles; Gabriel Assis-Pereira; Fidel A Roig; Mario Tomazello-Filho

doi:10.1016/j.scitotenv.2023.162064

Climate variability of the southern Amazon inferred by a multi-proxy tree-ring approach using Cedrela fissilis Vell

Sci Total Environ. 2023 May 1:871:162064. doi: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2023.162064. Epub 2023 Feb 8.

Affiliations

¹ Universidade de São Paulo, Escola Superior de Agricultura Luiz de Queiroz, Departamento de Ciências Florestais, Av. Pádua Dias 11, 13418-900 Piracicaba, São Paulo, Brazil; DendrOlavide-Dept. Sistemas Físicos, Químicos y Naturales, Universidad Pablo de Olavide, Crta. Utrera km. 1, 41013 Sevilla, Spain. Electronic address: dai.ricardo.or@gmail.com.
² DendrOlavide-Dept. Sistemas Físicos, Químicos y Naturales, Universidad Pablo de Olavide, Crta. Utrera km. 1, 41013 Sevilla, Spain.
³ DendrOlavide-Dept. Sistemas Físicos, Químicos y Naturales, Universidad Pablo de Olavide, Crta. Utrera km. 1, 41013 Sevilla, Spain; Department of Ecology, Universidad de Jaén, Campus Las Lagunillas s/n., 23009 Jaén, Spain.
⁴ Department of Geosciences, University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, AR 72701, USA.
⁵ Institute of Biosciences, University of São Paulo, Rua do Matão 14, São Paulo 05508-090, Brazil; School of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Birmingham, Garstang North, Building, Birmingham B15 2TT, UK.
⁶ Department of Plant Biology, Institute of Biology, University of Campinas - UNICAMP, Campinas, São Paulo 13083-970, Brazil; Universidade de São Paulo, Escola Superior de Agricultura Luiz de Queiroz, Departamento de Ciências Florestais, Av. Pádua Dias 11, 13418-900 Piracicaba, São Paulo, Brazil.
⁷ Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory of Columbia University, Palisades, NY, USA; CREAF, Bellatera (Cerdanyola del Vallès), Spain; ICREA, Barcelona, Spain.
⁸ Universidade de São Paulo, Escola Superior de Agricultura Luiz de Queiroz, Departamento de Ciências Florestais, Av. Pádua Dias 11, 13418-900 Piracicaba, São Paulo, Brazil.
⁹ Argentine Institute of Nivology, Glaciology and Environmental Sciences (IANIGLA, CONICET-Universidad Nacional de Cuyo), 5500 Mendoza, Argentina; Hémera Centro de Observación de la Tierra, Escuela de Ingeniería Forestal, Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad Mayor, Santiago, Chile.

PMID: 36758695
DOI: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2023.162064

Abstract

The analysis of climate variability and development of reconstructions based on tree-ring records in tropical forests have been increasing in recent decades. In the Amazon region, ring width and stable isotope long-term chronologies have been used for climatic studies, however little is known about the potential of wood traits such as density and chemical concentrations. In this study, we used well-dated rings of Cedrela fissilis Vell. from the drought-prone southern Amazon basin to assess the potential of using inter-annual variations of annually-resolved ring width, wood density, stable oxygen isotope (δ¹⁸O_TR) measured in tree-ring cellulose and concentration of Sulfur (S_TR) and Calcium (Ca_TR) in xylem cells to study climate variability. During wet years, Cedrela fissilis produced wider and denser rings with higher Ca_TR and lower S_TR, as well as depleted δ¹⁸O_TR values. During dry years, a wider range of responses was observed in growth, density and S_TR, while lower Ca_TR and enriched δ¹⁸O_TR values were found. The annual centennial chronologies spanning from 1835 to 2018 showed good calibration skills for reconstructing local precipitation, evapotranspiration (P-PET), Amazon-wide rainfall, as well as climate modes related to sea surface temperature (SST) anomalies such as El Niño South Oscillation (ENSO), Tropical Northern Atlantic (TNA), and the Western Hemisphere Warm Pool (WHWP) oscillations. Ca_TR explained 42 % of the variance of local precipitation (1975-2018), RW explained 30 % of the P-PET variance (1975-2018), while δ¹⁸O_TR explained 60 % and 57 % of the variance of Amazon rainfall (1960-2018) and El Niño 3.4 (1920-2018), respectively. Our results show that a multi-proxy tropical tree-ring approach can be used for high-reliable reconstructions of climate variability over Amazon basin at inter-annual and multidecadal time scales.

Keywords: Dendrochemistry; Dendroclimatology; ENSO; SST; Tropical forests; Wood traits.

MeSH terms

Cedrela*
El Nino-Southern Oscillation
Forests
Seasons
Trees*