Southwest (Blacks Mountain) - USSW_001 Additional Site Information Carl N. Skinner, Alan H. Taylor, Valerie Trouet, Eugene R. Wahl, and Scott L. Stephens Dating Method: Crossdated Reference: Trouet, V., A. H. Taylor, E. R. Wahl, C. N. Skinner, and S. L. Stephens. 2010. Fire-climate interactions in the AmericanWest since 1400 CE, Geophys. Res. Lett. 37, L04702, doi:10.1029/ 2009GL041695. Abstract: Despite a strong anthropogenic fingerprint on 20th Century wildland fire activity in the American West, climate remains a main driver. A better understanding of the spatiotemporal variability in fire-climate interactions is therefore crucial for fire management. Here, we present annually resolved, tree-ring based fire records for four regions in the American West that extend back to 1400 CE. In all regions, years with high fire activity were characterized by widespread yet regionally distinct summer droughts. Overall fire activity was high in late Medieval times, when much of the American West was affected by mega-droughts. A distinct decline in fire activity in the late 16th Century corresponds with anomalously low temperatures during the Little Ice Age and a decline in Native American fire use. The high spatiotemporal resolution of our fire record discloses a time-frequency dependent climatic influence on wildfire regimes in the American West that needs to be accounted for in fire models. Comments: These fire-scar records were provided via a USDI/USDA Interagency Joint Fire Sciences Program database project (Taylor, A. H., C. N. Skinner, A. M. Carleton, and S. L. Stephens. 2007. Fire climate interactions and predicting fire season severity in the Mediterranean climate areas of California, southern Oregon, and western Nevada. Rep. 03-1-1-22. Joint Fire Sci. Program, Boise, Idaho.). Fire scar-records were selected from individual trees that were recording fire prior to the year 1500. Data from additional sites were also included in the Southwest site, and the original records for these sites are available via the International Multiproxy Paleofire Database (http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/paleo/impd/paleofire.html): Site Name, Latitude (degrees N), Longitude (degrees W), Principal Investigator Black Mountain,33.36,108.21,Baisan and Swetnam Canada Bonia,35.91,106.37,Touchan et al. Cerro Bandera,35,108.1,Grissino-Mayer and Swetnam Fillmore Canyon,32.33,106.56,Morino et al. Hitchcock,32.38,110.68,1,Baisan and Morino Hoya de Cibola Lava Flow,34.89,108.15,Grissino-Mayer and Swetnam Josephine Saddle,31.69,110.86,Gungle et al. La Luz trail Sandia Mountains,35.21,106.46,Baisan and Swetnam La Marchanita,34.99,108.06,Grissino-Mayer and Swetnam Mesita Blanca,34.88,108.07,Grissino-Mayer and Swetnam Mica Mountain,32.2,110.5,Baisan and Swetnam Monument Canyon Natural Area,35.8,106.62,Swetnam et al. N Alamo Bog,35.92,106.59,Morino et al. Old Pine Bluff,32.34,106.55,Morino et al. Peters Flat,32.46,109.56,Grissino-Mayer Rincon Peak,32.12,110.52,Baisan Rito de los Frijoles,35.82,106.38,Swetnam et al. Rock House Spring,32.33,106.55,Morino and Swetnam Round Mountain,35.87,105.64,Touchan The complete set of data used by Trouet et al. are also availabe in non-FHX2 format via NOAA Paleoclimatology's data archive at: ftp://ftp.ncdc.noaa.gov/pub/data/paleo/firehistory/firescar/contributions_by_author/trouet2010/ Fire History Graphs: Fire History Graphs illustrate specific years when fires occurred and how many trees were scarred. They are available in both PDF and PNG formats. The graphs consist of 2 parts, both of which show the X axis (time line) at the bottom with the earliest year of information on the left and the latest on the right. The Fire Index Plot is the topmost plot, and shows two variables: sample depth (the number of recording trees in each year) as a blue line along the left Y axis, compared with the percent trees scarred shown as gray bars along the right Y axis. Below, the Fire Chronology Plot consists of horizontal lines representing injuries by year on individual sampled trees. Symbols are overlain that denote the years containing the dendrochronologically-dated fire scars or injuries. The sample ID of each tree is displayed to the right of each line. The Composite Axis below represents the composite information from all individual series. The symbols used to represent the fire scars or injuries, and the filters used to determine the composite information, are shown in the legend. These graphs were created using the Fire History Analysis and Exploration System (FHAES). See http://frames.nbii.gov/fhaes/ for more information.