Decline in old-growth red spruce in western Maine: an analysis of wood density and climate

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Abstract
Maximum ring densities from an old-growth red spruce stand in western Maine are well correlated with climate over the period of comparable record, but they show evidence of an unusual decrease in recent decades, one that is not as marked in ring widths from the same trees. Regressions between spring temperature and maximum wood density are significant and quite similar in the two halves of the time period, 1899–1945 and 1946–1984, but a regression in 1965–1984 is not significant. Correlations between predictions of density from spring temperature and actual densities are high, positive, and significant until the mid-1960s, when they become nonsignificant and very small in value. The cause of such an unprecedented change in the relationship between maximum density of red spruce and climatic conditions has not been identified.