A Dendrochronological Analysis of Longleaf and Associated Pines From the Blackwater Ecological Preserve in Southeastern Virginia

The field of dendrochronology utilizes annual tree ring growth data to create chronologies, which function as proxies to measure the effect of climate on radial growth. In the southeastern United States, dendrochronological studies involving the effect of climate on the growth of Pinus species exist, but significant gaps persist. For this study, I: 1) created chronologies of earlywood, latewood, and total ring-width growth for longleaf pine (Pinus palustris Mill.), loblolly pine (P. taeda L.), and pond pine (P. serotina Michx.) and 2) conducted a climate analysis on each species to determine how climatic factors affected radial growth at the Blackwater Ecological Preserve (BEP) located in southeastern Virginia. I determined that overall, PDSI during late summer and fall of the current growing year had a positive correlation with growth for all species. There was a general positive trend between precipitation and growth for current year summer months, though there were some negative correlations for precipitation during months of the previous year. For minimum temperature, there was a mostly positive relationship between growth and minimum temperature in March of the current year. Lastly, the relationships between growth and maximum temperature were more varied between the three species. The results from this study fill a gap in knowledge of growth trends for Pinus species native to the southeastern United States and have potential implications on the management of the preserve and its pine populations.