Seasonal climate signals from multiple tree ring metrics: A case study of Pinus ponderosa in the upper Columbia River Basin

Projected changes in the seasonality of hydroclimatic regimes are likely to have important implications for water resources and terrestrial ecosystems in the U.S. Pacific Northwest. The tree ring record, which has frequently been used to position recent changes in a longer‐term context, typically relies on signals embedded in the total ring width of tree rings. Additional climatic inferences at a subannual temporal scale can be made using alternative tree ring metrics such as earlywood and latewood widths and the density of tree ring latewood. Here we examine seasonal precipitation and temperature signals embedded in total ring width, earlywood width, adjusted latewood width, and blue intensity chronologies from a network of six Pinus ponderosa sites in and surrounding the upper Columbia River Basin of the U.S. Pacific Northwest. We also evaluate the potential for combining multiple tree ring metrics together in reconstructions of past cool‐ and warm‐season precipitation. The common signal among all metrics and sites is related to warm‐season precipitation. Earlywood and latewood widths differ primarily in their sensitivity to conditions in the year prior to growth. Total and earlywood widths from the lowest elevation sites also reflect cool‐season moisture. Effective correlation analyses and composite‐plus‐scale tests suggest that combining multiple tree ring metrics together may improve reconstructions of warm‐season precipitation. For cool‐season precipitation, total ring width alone explains more variance than any other individual metric or combination of metrics. The composite‐plus‐scale tests show that variance‐scaled precipitation reconstructions in the upper Columbia River Basin may be asymmetric in their ability to capture extreme events.