InhaltsangabePART I: INTRODUCTORY SECTION1. High-resolution paleoclimatologyRaymond S. Bradley 2. Dendroclimatology in high-resolution paleoclimatologyMalcolm K. Hughes PART II: SCIENTIFIC BASES OF DENDROCLIMATOLOGY3. How well understood are the processes that create dendroclimatic records? A mechanistic model of the climatic control on conifer tree-ring growth dynamicsEugene A.Vaganov, Kevin J. Anchukaitis and Michael N. Evans 4. Uncertainty, emergence, and statistics in dendrochronologyEdward R. Cook and Neil Pederson 5. A closer look at regional curve standardization of tree-ring records: justification of the need, a warning of some pitfalls, and suggested improvements in its applicationKeith R. Briffa and Thomas Melvin 6. Stable isotopes in dendroclimatology: moving beyond 'potential'Mary Gagen, Daniel McCarroll, Neil J. Loader and Iain Robertson. PART III: RECONSTRUCTION OF CLIMATE PATTERNS AND VALUES RELATIVE TO TODAY'S CLIMATE 7. Dendroclimatology from regional to continental scales: Understanding regional processes to reconstruct large-scale climatic variations across the Western AmericasRicardo Villalba,  Brian H. Luckman, Jose Boninsegna, Rosanne D. D'Arrigo, Antonio Lara, Jose Villanueva-Diaz, Mariano Masiokas, Jaime Argollo, Claudia Soliz, Carlos LeQuesne, David W. Stahle, Fidel Roig, Juan Carlos Aravena, Malcolm K. Hughes, Gregory Wiles, Gordon Jacoby, Peter Hartsough, Robert J.S. Wilson, Emily Watson, Edward R. Cook, Julian Cerano-Paredes, Matthew Therrell, Malcolm Cleaveland, Mariano S. Morales, Nicholas E. Graham, Jorge Moya, Jeanette Pacajes, Guillermina Massacchesi, Franco Biondi, Rocio Urrutia, and Guillermo Martinez Pastur PART IV: APPLICATIONS OF DENDROCLIMATOLOGY8. Application of streamflow reconstruction to water resources managementDavid M. Meko and Connie A.Woodhouse 9. Climatic inferences from dendroecological reconstructions Thomas W. Swetnam and Peter M. Brown 10. North American tree-rings, climatic extremes, and social disastersDavid W. Stahle and Jeffrey S. Dean PART V: OVERVIEW11. Tree rings and climate: Sharpening the focus Malcolm K. Hughes, Henry F. Diaz and Thomas W. Swetnam

Malcolm K. Hughes: Regents' Professor of Dendrochronology and Director Emeritus, Laboratory of Tree-Ring Research, University of Arizona is a paleoclimatologist specializing in the use of tree rings and other annual records to reconstruct and understand the past behavior of the climate system on geographic scales from local to global, and from time scales ranging from years to millennia. He has carried out research in Europe, North America, Russia, China, India and the Eastern Mediterranean region. Professor Hughes is a Fellow of the American Geophysical Union and Chair-Elect of the Section on Geology and Geography of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Thomas W. Swetnam, Professor of Dendrochronology and Director of Laboratory of Tree-Ring Research, University of Arizona, is a forest ecologist and dendrochronologist specializing in the study of forest fires, insect outbreaks, and forest demography and the climatic and human causes of variations in forest ecosystems; graduate training in forestry, watershed management, and dendrochronology at the University of Arizona; has carried out extensive research in western North America, and in areas of South America and Siberia, Russia. Henry F. Diaz is a research climatologist with the Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences at the University of Colorado-Boulder. He is a recognized expert on the El Niño phenomenon, modern and paleo-climate changes, climate impacts, and other topics, and has published dozens of scientific journal articles on various topics related to the subject of climatic variations. He has edited several books, on topics such as El Niño, Climate Change and Water Resources, Climate Change in Mountains, and Climate Extremes and Society. He retired from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) in 2007 after a distinguished 33 years career in the federal civil service. Dr Diaz is a Fellow of the American Meteorological Society.