The permutation test for testing the statistical significance of the power spectrum estimation in dendrochronological analysis

Abstract

The study presents a proposal of application of the statistical permutation test, known from other applications, for searching for the symptoms of cyclicity, in particular related to solar activity, in the annual growth sequences of trees. The test consists in generation of random sequences of the increment widths observed and comparison of their periodograms with the periodogram of the sequence analysed. This allows for evaluation of the significance of the individual frequencies in the total variability. The model calculations carried out indicate that in the studies on cyclicity in dendrochronological sequences satisfactory results could be obtained in the analysis of sets of the individual sequences (but not the chronologies produced from them). It is important to generate sufficiently high numbers (1000 and more) of random sequences and to apply relatively low significance levels (at 0.05, or even 0.01). © 2010 GADAM Centre.