Feasibility of Using Tree-Ring Chronologies to Augment Hydrologic Records in Tasmania, Australia

TitleFeasibility of Using Tree-Ring Chronologies to Augment Hydrologic Records in Tasmania, Australia
Publication TypeThesis
Year of Publication1980
AuthorsCampbell, DA
Academic DepartmentSchool of Renewable Natural Resources
DegreeMS
UniversityUniversity of Arizona
Abstract

Monthly streamflow records from 8 gauging stations in western Tasmania seasonalized to include either the 5 months, November through March, or the 12 months, April through March, were used as predictands is a series of multiple linear regressions. The predictors were tree-ring eigenvector amplitudes derived from 11 chronologies, representing 4 species, from sites all over the state. Tree-ring widths in both the current and following years were significant in predicating runoff for the November-March period but not for the longer season.Canonical correlations and regressions calculated between the set of 8 runoff records and he set of 11 tree-ring chronologies accounted for 47% of the variance of the 5-month streamflow during the 1958-1973 calibration period. Estimates of seasonalized summer runoff back though 1776 at 8 gauging stations were obtained by applying canonical regression equations to the 198-year tree-ring record. Three of the reconstructed series were verified using runoff data recorded for at least 8 years outside the calibration period.The results of this first attempt to employ tree-ring chronologies to extend streamflow records in Tasmania show promise for more widespread future applications of the technique.