| Latewood maximum density (MXD) has been shown through many studies to be an important tree-ring variable for dendroclimatology. However, as only a few laboratories have the facilities to measure this proxy, relatively few long (> 800 years) density chronologies exist. Blue Intensity (BI), a relatively new TR variable, has been shown to measure similar density-like properties as MXD, but can be measured at a fraction of the cost using standard flatbed scanners and off the shelf software packages. However, use of BI is still very much in an early developmental phase and few published dendroclimatic studies have actually used it. There remains much experimentation to fully explore the strengths and limitations of BI for dendroclimatology. In this presentation I present a range of results from several BI based studies from NW Europe, the Pyrenees, Gulf of Alaska and Australasia focusing particularly on the potential for extracting low frequency climate information. |