Age-related climate sensitivity in Pinus Edulis at Dinosaur National Monument, Colorado, USA

We investigated the degree to which this relationship could be explained by the summer Palmer Drought Severity Index (PDSI) and whether this relationship varied with tree age. The strength of the tree-ring growth response to PDSI was at a maximum during the first two centuries of growth (R2 = 0.54). between two and six centuries (R2 = 0.48), after which we detected a decline in the sensitivity of tree growth to PDSI with increasing age (R2 = 0.41). This study adds to the literature on age-related climate sensitivity in trees; our findings indicate that age-related changes in climate-tree-ring growth responses should be considered when climate variables are reconstructed from tree-ring width chronologies, and specifically from Pinus edulis.