date: Thu, 13 Aug 1998 17:08:04 +0100 () from: Andy Baker subject: stalagmite and tree ring high resolution holocene palaeoclimate to: k.briffa@uea.ac.uk Dear Keith, You may remember that we met and spoke some years ago at the NERC Town Meeting on Palaeoclimate, where I was advocating the posibilities of high resolution stalagmite records from luminescence variations. You expressed some interest at the time in doing some collaborative work. Of course that was about 4 years ago now! I am now nearing the end of a 2 year NERC funded project to investigate the potential of stalagmite luminescence laminations as a palaeoclimate proxy. We have at present a 1000 year continuous annual record from NW Scotland, which demonstrates good correlations with both historical climate data and other expected longer term trends (e.g double Little Ice Age). We are hoping to get an extension to extend this record back to 4000 years (we have three triplicate stals, but not the man-time!). Would you be interested in some joint work. For our 1000 year record, annual stalagmite growth rate seems to be a complex proxy of T/Pptn (based on calibration against the historical record) and is the weakest of our proxies. Winter band structure gives a good record of winter storminess and is much clearer as a proxy. Do you have / know of any tree ring records that could be useful? Our stals are from Inchnadamph, Assynt, NW Scotland (nearest met. station - Stornoway). Given the uniqueness of the regions rainfall record compared to the rest of the UK/Ireland, and the fact that we seem to be getting a winter rainfall signal, suggests (at least to me as a non-expert) that comparison to tree-ring records from outside the region may not be too useful. But if you have records from the region, then we may be able to construct a better palaeoclimate proxy using the two records together?? Please let me know if you would be interested in pursuing this further. Yours Andy ps If replying after 1.9.98, I will be at Newcastle University, so please mail me there. Should be something obvious - try andy.baker@ncl.ac.uk or a.baker@ncl.ac.uk pps have greatly enjoyed your recent publications, and would value any offprints if you have spares. ---------------------- Andy Baker University of Exeter