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TREE-RING CHRONOLOGIES FROM UPPER INDUS BASIN OF KARAKORUM RANGE, PAKISTAN

MOINUDDIN AHMED, MUHAMMAD WAHAB, NASRULLAH KHAN, MUHAMMAD USAMA ZAFAR AND *JONATHAN PALMER

Abstract: Four coniferous species i.e. Picea smithiana (Wall.) Boiss, Cedrus deodara D. Don, Pinus gerardiana Wall. Ex Lamb. and Juniperus excelsa M. Bieb. were sampled from seven catchments in the Upper Indus Basin of Himalayan region of Pakistan. The purpose of this investigation was to explore dendrohydrological potential of these species. Core samples of these species show good inter-and intra-species cross-matching, despite being collected from different areas. The quality control program, COFECHA showed that wood samples of these species exhibit 0.68 to 0.92 correlation with master chronologies and 0.23 to 0.42 mean sensitivity. Standardized dated chronologies of these species are presented which span from 212 years to 486 years with a wide range of growth rates. Residual chronologies show higher mean sensitivity (0.205-0.411) while in general, higher serial correlation was recorded in arstan chronologies. Values of expressed population signals (EPS) were higher than 0.850, which are encouraging for future advanced tree-ring investigation. It is suggested that these chronologies have a high potential for dendrohydrological investigation. However, there is a need for larger sample sizes and further extension of these chronologies into the past.

Laboratory of Dendrochronology and Plant Ecology, Department of Botany, Federal Urdu University of Arts, Science and Technology, Karachi-75300, Pakistan.

*Gondwana Tree-Ring Laboratory, Christchurch, New Zealand.