Developing new sources of proxy climate data from historical structures in the Lake Michigan-Huron Basin
2016
Larson, Evan R. | Rawling, J Elmo
The need to understand lake level variability in the Great Lakes is underscored by record low stands in 2012 followed by a quick shift back to the historic averages by 2014 in the Michigan-Huron basins. These rapid changes have important implications for near-shore ecology, sedimentology, water management, tourism, and industrial commerce throughout the Great Lakes region. Attempts to reconstruct climatic controls of lake level variability from tree rings have either been based on spatially and temporally limited tree-ring data sets or tree-ring records from sites in the Pacific Northwest teleconnected to Great Lakes climate. The necessary local tree-ring chronologies to develop more robust reconstructions of climate and its relation to Great Lakes levels simply do not exist. A particularly evident gap in available data exists in Lower Michigan, where logging in the 1800s removed most old growth forests. Here we report the development of three new tree-ring chronologies derived from a pier near the mouth of the Kalamazoo River that was constructed ca. 1871. The new chronologies include multi-century Pinus resinosa (1673–1878), Quercus spp. (1628–1847), and Tsuga canadensis (1643–1864) tree-ring data that exhibit patterns of correlation among reference chronologies of the same species indicative of origins within the Great Lakes Region, and possibly Lower Michigan. Our results illustrate the excellent potential to develop a more complete network of sites with tree-ring data throughout the Michigan-Huron Basin by utilizing wood incorporated into historical structures.
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