Findon 7 Pinus sylvestris denrochronological dataset

Abstract

This dataset consists of tree ring width measurements (dendrochronological measurements) calculated from cross sectional discs taken along the lengths of Pinus sylvestris trees felled in the north-east of Scotland (Site name: Findon 7, location: 57° 36′ 23″ N, 4° 16′ 50″ W) in the winters of 2002 and 2003. Trees were established in 1935 as a spacing experiment with high (FR5) and low density (FR6) stands stocked at 1047 live trees per hectare (FR5) and 647 live trees per hectare (FR6) at the time of sampling. Tree ring width measurements were calculated for 0.3m, 1.3m and 3.3m stem heights in both density treatments using Windendro software, though not all trees are represented at all stem heights as only disc images within ± 30cm from 0.3m, 1.3m and 3.3m high were selected for processing. This approach ensured that measurements were consistently taken from a similar stem height, whilst allowing for some variation in the precise location of each disc (e.g. due to the location of branch whorls). All tree-ring width data have been crossdated using the leave one out principle in the dplR package in R (Bunn et al., 2019). These data were generated to calculate the resilience of Scottish P. sylvestris trees to historic extreme drought events as part of a PhD research project titled "Assessing the resilience of UK forests to drought".