Climatic signals in British Isles tree-ring chronologies

Interpretation of proxy records of past environmental conditions derived from dated geological or biological materials is of great importance for the extension of the climatic record1,2. Precisely dated, replicated tree-ring series have been particularly useful as they provide records (usually ring-widths) dated to the individual year, for hundreds or thousands of years. Each such series, or chronology, is derived from a particular known location. Thus a network of such chronologies may be developed for a particular region and used as a proxy record of spatial and temporal climatic variations. This has been achieved in North America by Fritts et al.3,4, using principally chronologies from semi-arid areas or from near altitudinal or polar tree-lines. We report evidence here that tree-ring chronologies from sites in the British Isles will provide suitable proxy records for the reconstruction of historical temporal and spatial variation of climate.