Cronologías de ancho de anillos de queñoa (Polylepis tarapacana) para los últimos 500 años en el Altiplano de la región de Arica y Parinacota, Chile

Abstract

The need to cover the dendrochronological research gaps in the Sub Tropical regions of South America motivated the search for new geographical areas and new species to investigate climatic variability. Polylepis tarapacana grows above 4,200 m a.s.l. in South America (16°-23° S), permitting the expansion of dendrochronological studies in subtropical areas. Samples from living and dead trees were collected in January 2003, near Nasahuento village (17° 32 ′S, 69° 35 ′ W) at 4,313 m a.s.l. and Guallatire volcano (18° 48 ′ S, 69° 08 ′ W) at 4,750 m a.s.l. These samples rendered the first two tree-ring chronologies of P. tarapacana in Chile. Nasahuento and Guallatire chronologies date back 242 and 536 years, respectively. Both were compared with instrumental records of precipitation and temperature. Statistics obtained from these analyses showed that both sites are adequate to be used for dendroclimatic purposes. Correlation functions showed that growth is mainly regulated by precipitation, correlating positively with the previous summer and negatively with the current one. January shows the most significant coefficients for both years. On the other hand, temperature is negatively correlated with the previous summer and positively correlated with the current season, evidencing a relationship between tree growth and water availability. Tree-ring chronologies developed in this study provide high-resolution climate sensitive records that are valuable for future climate reconstructions.