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Late-Holocene upper timberline variation in the southern Sierra Nevada

Nature volume 325, pages 242–244 (1987)Cite this article

Abstract

Alpine timberline has been shown to be a definite tension zone between trees and climate where trees invade higher ground during favourable climatic periods and retreat during periods of deteriorating conditions1. These movements are indicative of an upper forest limit sensitively adjusted to climatic variation. Here I present absolutely dated dendrochronological records from living trees and standing snags and radiometric dates from relict logs of foxtail pine at Cirque Peak, southern Sierra Nevada, California, providing the first detailed record of temperature-induced mid- to late-Holocene fluctuations in Sierran timberline. Marked declines in timberline correspond to lichen-dated cold periods and/or glacial advance.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Isotope Laboratory, Institute of Geophysics and Planetary Physics, University of California, Los Angeles, 90024, USA

    Louis A. Scuderi

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  1. Louis A. Scuderi
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Scuderi, L. Late-Holocene upper timberline variation in the southern Sierra Nevada. Nature 325, 242–244 (1987). https://doi.org/10.1038/325242a0

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