Dendroclimatology along Cliff Environments of Northeastern West Virginia: a Comparison of Ridgetop Pines and Cliff-line Red Cedar

Cliff environments can provide excellent locations for dendrochronological studies. This is largely due to harsh growing conditions that often result in an enhanced sensitivity to climate variability. The relative inacessability of such locations also reduces the chance of anthropogenic disturbance, such as logging and fire. Therefore, depending on the natural stability of a particular cliff environment, trees may attain very old age (i.e., > 500 years). Dead stems of conifers like Thuja and Juniperus can survive for many hundreds of years on ledges and talus slopes, making it possible to extend living chronologies by hundreds of years or more, prior to the time span of the earliest living trees.