CLIMTREG: Detecting temporal changes in climate-growth reactions - A computer program using intra-annual daily and yearly moving time intervals of variable width

Analysing climate-growth relationships is one of the key areas in dendrochronological research. One problem however remained unsolved - the discrepancy between the trees continuous growth over the vegetation period and the mean climate variables stretching over much longer periods. Here we present the possibility to calculate climate-growth correlations based on daily climate data using variable temporal width together with moving correlations to accommodate for short term as well as long term influences on tree growth. For the first time this offers the opportunity to acknowledge annual changes in the growing seasonal length and effects of short extreme events. Numerous outputs in data- and graphic-files allows a comparison of varying periods with significant correlations between climate and tree growth. Furthermore the use of climate scenarios is an optional tool for growth predictions. (C) 2013 Elsevier GmbH. All rights reserved.