@mastersthesis {542, title = {Analysis and reconstruction of the relationship between a circulation anomaly feature and tree rings: Linear and nonlinear approaches}, volume = {PhD}, year = {2000}, school = {University of Arizona}, abstract = {Tree rings can be reliable recorders of past weather and climate variations. Tree rings from mountain regions can be linked to upper air atmospheric sounding observations and large-scale atmospheric circulation patterns. A {\textquotedblleft}synoptic dendroclimatology{\textquotedblright} approach is used to define the relationship between tree rings and a specific upper air anomaly feature that affects climate in the western US. I have also reconstructed this anomaly feature using both regression and fuzzy logic approaches. Correlation analysis between 500 mb geopotential heights and tree rings at a site near Eagle, Colorado reveals an important anomaly centered over the western US. This center can be viewed as a circulation anomaly center index (CACI) that can quantitatively represent the relationship between atmospheric circulation and tree growth variations. To reconstruct this index from tree rings, I used both a multiple linear regression (MLR) and a fuzzy-rule-based (FRB) model. The fuzzy-rule-based model provides a simple structural approach to capture nonlinear relationships between tree rings and circulation. The reconstructing capability of both models is validated directly from an independent data set. Results show that the fuzzy-rule-based model performs better in terms of calibration and verification statistics than the multiple linear regression model. The reconstructed anomaly index can provide a long-term temporal context for evaluation of circulation variability and how it is linked to both climate and tree rings.}, keywords = {Statistics}, url = {http://ezproxy.library.arizona.edu/login?url=http://proquest.umi.com/pqdweb?did=731915311\&sid=23\&Fmt=2\&clientId=43922\&RQT=309\&VName=PQD}, author = {Ni, Fenbiao} } @mastersthesis {541, title = {A History of Archaeological Tree-Ring Datin: 1914-1945}, volume = {PhD}, year = {1997}, school = {University of Arizona}, abstract = {Dendrochronology, the science of assigning precise and accurate calendar dates to annual growth rings in trees, was the first independent dating technique available to prehistorians. Archaeological tree-ring dating came of age at a time when North American archaeologists concerned themselves primarily with time-space systematics, yet had no absolute and independent dating techniques available to guide their analyses. The history of archaeological tree-ring dating from 1914 through the end of World War II is often reduced to discussions of the discovery of specimen HH-39 on June 22, 1929 and considerations of the National Geographic Society Beam Expeditions of 1923, 1928, and 1929. The development and integration of archaeological tree-ring dating is in fact much more complex than these simplistic histories indicate. The {\textquotedblleft}bridging of the gap,{\textquotedblright} as symbolized by the discovery of HH-39, represents merely the culmination of an intense 15-year long research effort that included at least seven {\textquotedblleft}beam expeditions{\textquotedblright} and a great deal of laboratory and brilliant archaeological research. By 1931, four Southwestern archaeological research institutions had hired dendrochronologists to conduct archaeological tree-ring dating in support of their various research interests. By 1936, dendrochronology was being applied in support archaeological research in the Mississippi Valley and Alaska. By 1942 however, Southwestern archaeological tree-ring dating once again became the exclusive domain of the Laboratory of Tree-Ring Research at the University of Arizona, and by 1950 efforts to extend tree-ring dating to other parts of North America as well. A controlled analysis and comparison of tree-ring sample collection activity, correspondence, unpublished research records, and the publication record relevant to North American archaeological tree-ring dating from 1914 to 1945 provides a chronicle of important events in the development of archaeological dendrochronology, provides an understanding of the processes through which tree-ring dating became incorporated in increasingly sophisticated archaeological analyses and interpretations of Southwestern and indeed North American prehistory, serves as a case study for a proposed unilineal model of the development and incorporation of analytical techniques in archaeology, and lays the foundation for a body of theory regarding the development of ancillary chronometric and archaeometric techniques and their application to archaeological problems.}, keywords = {Science history}, url = {http://ezproxy.library.arizona.edu/login?url=http://proquest.umi.com/pqdweb?did=739840221\&sid=5\&Fmt=2\&clientId=43922\&RQT=309\&VName=PQD}, author = {Nash, Stephan Edward} } @mastersthesis {727, title = {An Application of Climatological Water Balance Modeling to Dendroclimatology in the Black Hills of South Dakota}, volume = {Master of Science}, year = {1993}, pages = {138}, school = {University of Arizona}, abstract = {

Tree-ring data from bur oak (Quercus macrocarpa) and ponderosa pine (Pinus ponderosa) were used to investigate the relationship between annual ring width and soil moisture in the Black Hills area of western South Dakota and eastern Wyoming. Soil moisture values were developed from a water balance model (SNWBAL), using climate data from weather stations in the area.

The response between the tree-ring chronologies and climate and water-balance variables shows a strong relation between annual ring growth and precipitation and soil moisture. The best variable combinations for reconstructing the local drought history were identified from this analysis.

Several statistical approaches were used to check the internal consistency of the data and to determine the relationship between the various data sets.

A scenario for further study, especially for the reconstruction of past climate variables was drawn based on the results of response analysis.

}, author = {Wanmei Ni} } @mastersthesis {543, title = {A Dendroclimatic Analysis of Three Indigenous Tree Species, South Island New Zealand}, volume = {PhD}, year = {1983}, school = {University of Canterbury}, author = {Norton, D.A.} }