Evaluation of a dendroclimatic process-based model (MAIDEN) over the last century using the PAGES2k tree-ring width database

Trees are one of the main archives to reconstruct the climate of the last millennium at high resolution. The links between tree-ring proxies and climate have usually been estimated on the basis of statistical approaches, assuming linear and stationary relationships. Both assumptions can be inadequate and this issue can be overcome by ecophysiological models such as MAIDEN (Modeling and Analysis In DENdroecology), which simulates tree-ring growth starting from temperature and precipitation daily inputs. A protocol for the application of MAIDEN to potentially any site with tree-ring width data in the extratropical region has been developed in Rezsöhazy et al. (2019) (in review). In this study, the applicability of the model has been tested over the twentieth century using as a test case tree-ring observations from twenty-one Eastern Canadian taiga sites and three European sites. The paper highlights the potential of MAIDEN as a complex mechanistic proxy system model to analyse the links between tree growth and climatic conditions in paleoclimatic applications. Following on from this recent work, MAIDEN is here applied to the PAGES2k tree-ring width database over the last century using the protocol developed in Rezsöhazy et al. (2019) (in review). We show how this larger network allows refining our protocol. We identify the regions and sites where MAIDEN can be successfully applied, as well as estimate the uncertainty associated with the use of MAIDEN for a wide range of sites.

 

Rezsöhazy, J., Goosse, H., Guiot, J., Gennaretti, F., Boucher, E., André, F., and Jonard, M.: Application and evaluation of the dendroclimatic process-based model MAIDEN during the last century in Canada and Europe, Clim. Past Discuss., https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-2019-140, in review, 2019.