| This purpose of this research was to use longleaf pine trees at three major sites in the Southeastern Coastal Plain to: (1) determine how longleaf pine trees respond to climate; (2) reconstruct past climate conditions using long tree-ring chronologies; (3) determine the effects of atmospheric teleconnections on longleaf pine growth; (4) reconstruct fire history from fire-scar data. In the climate response analysis, PDSI and PHDI had the highest correlation with longleaf pine growth. Precipitation in the spring and summer was also positively related to growth at all sites. The relationship between temperature and growth was the weakest among all climate variables, but warm summer temperatures had a consistent, negative relationship with longleaf pine growth.;I developed chronologies far total ring width at all sites and for earlywood and latewood widths in Texas and South Carolina. The master chronologies for each site ranged from 1629-2003 in Texas, 1503-2003 in Florida, and 1455-2003 in South Carolina. I reconstructed September PHDI at all sites using a transfer function with tree-ring indices as the independent variable. My reconstructions showed evidence for several historic disturbances including the Charleston earthquake of 1886 and the arctic outbreak of 1835.;ENSO in the summer and fall correlated significantly with tree growth in Texas and South Carolina. The PDO in the year prior to growth was generally directly related to longleaf pine growth, while PDO in the current year usually showed an inverse association. The NAO from August of the previous year and May of the current year were generally negatively related to longleaf, pine growth. The AMO, was generally positively associated with longleaf pine growth in all months of the year.;The reconstruction of fire history revealed that fire was frequent at all sites prior to the advent of fire suppression. The nature of the fire regime varied according to site conditions such as the size of fire compartments and soil types. Fire frequency and seasonality of fires was also variable over time, reflecting the combined influence of climatic conditions and anthropogenic ignitions. |
