Wood anatomy, description of annual rings, and responses to ENSO events of Prosopis pallidaH.B.K., a wide-spread woody plant of arid and semi-arid lands of Latin America

Published Date
Journal of Arid Environments
June 2005, Vol.61(4):541–554, doi:10.1016/j.jaridenv.2004.10.008

• Author 

• B.C. López ^a,,
• S. Sabaté ^a,b
• C.A. Gracia ^a,b
• R. Rodríguez ^c

• aCREAF (Centre de Recerca Ecològica i Aplicacions Forestals), Edifici Ciències, UAB, 08193 Barcelona, Spain
• bDept. Ecologia, Fac. Biologia, UB, Avgda. Diagonal 645, 08028 Barcelona, Spain
• cUnivesidad de Piura, Av. Ramón Mugica 131. Urb. San Eduardo, Piura, Perú

Received 3 March 2004. Revised 5 October 2004. Accepted 6 October 2004. Available online 2 December 2004. 

Abstract

Prosopis  pallida H.B.K. is one of the most economically and ecologically important tree species in the arid and semi-arid lands of the American continent. Sections of P. pallida were used to describe its wood anatomy and to determine whether annual rings were visible or not. Results showed that P. pallida has well-differentiated annual growth rings and is therefore suitable for dendrochronological studies. Tree ring chronologies correlate well with precipitation events related to El Niño Southern Oscillation phases. A master chronology for the northern area of Peru was built with these data, and some physiological derivations from the anatomy of P. pallida wood are discussed.

Keywords

Algarrobo

Dendrochronology

El Niño Southern Oscillation

Prosopis pallida

Responses to ENSO events

Semi-arid Peru

Tree rings

Wood anatomy

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Copyright © 2004 Published by Elsevier Ltd.

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