Temperature-sensitive tree-ring width chronologies of pink pine (Halocarpus biformis) from Stewart Island, New Zealand

Long instrumental or proxy climatic records are scarce for the Southern Hemisphere relative to many northern regions, but are essential for a global perspective of past climate variability. In this paper we describe two tree-ring width chronologies of pink pine which are the first published for Stewart Island, New Zealand (47°S, 168°E), one of the southernmost forested land masses on the globe. A chronology for western-central Stewart Island (Doughboy-Rakeahua) extends from 1682 to 1990; the other, for southern Stewart Island (Pegasus) from 1690 to 1991. Both series are positively correlated with warm-season surface air temperatures for southern New Zealand and vicinity. Although there are shorter intervals of comparable warmth, the highest 20-year periods of growth during the past 300 years occurred during the middle 1950s–1970s, coinciding with record warming since around 1950 in New Zealand. Chronologies developed from two related species: silver pine (Lagarostrobus colensoi) from Ahaura, western South Island, New Zealand, and huon pine (Lagarostrobus franklinii) from Tasmania also indicate recent warming which is unusual, although not statistically unprecedented, within the contexts of the past 642 and 2290 years of record, respectively.