Dendroclimatic Relationships of Shortleaf Pine (Pinus Echinat Mill.) in the South Carolina Piedmont

An investigaiton was made of the dendrochronolical and dendroclimatic properties of shortleaf pine (Pinus echinata Mill.) in the western South Carolina Piedmont. Accurate dating of each annual ring was achieved by matching patterns of relatively narrow rings in the trees. Earlywood, latewood, and total annual radial growth were measured. To minimize non-climatic sources of radial growth variation, such as stand disturbance, and make different samples comparable, a computer program fitted an orthogonal polynomial curve to each series of measurements. Values for each year were divided by the curve value for that year. The resulting series were averaged to produce earlywood, latewood, and annual growth final chronologies with means of 1.0 and variances independent of age or mean growth of the trees. High resolution x-radiographs were made of the samples with the moving slit technique and intra-annual density variations were plotted by a scanning optical microdensitometer. Minimum earlywood and maximum latewood densities were measured. A regression line was...