Resumo

ARREOLA-ORTIZ, María Rafaela  e  NAVAR-CHAIDEZ, José de Jesús. Analysis of drought and biomass productivity with Pseudotsuga menziesii Rob. & Fern., chronologies and its association with the ENSO in Northeastern Mexico. Invest. Geog [online]. 2010, n.71, pp.7-20. ISSN 2448-7279.

This research was conducted to construct chronologies, to understand climatic shifts, and to determine productivity changes of Psesudotsuga menziensii Mirb. Franco of the Sierra Madre Oriental mountain range of Nuevo León, México. Radial growth patterns, drought episodes and productivity data were studied from the tree rings growth patterns during a 120 years study period. We also studied the association between recorded climate parameters and     that hit chronologies using data of four climatic stations. Chronologies were also associated to global scale climate events, the Multivariate ENSO Index (MEI) and climate parameters associated to chronologies were reconstructed. It was noted that chronologies show four main drought episodes (1885-1903, 1907-1937, 1950-1963, and 1998-2003) that hit the highlands of northeastern Mexico. Productivity has a mean radial growth values of 0.82 mm y^-1 and 1.18 mm y^-1 during drought and wet episodes, respectively. There is a good association between chronologies and winter rainfall. Reconstructed winter rainfall shows an increasing pattern in time and the MEI is negatively associated to the chronologies indicating that the presence of wet and cold winters and early spring promote radial growth of trees in northern Mexico.

Palavras-chave : Climate reconstruction; dendrochronologies; El Niño.