The problem of long term climate changes, espe- cially over the past 1000 years, is actively being dis- cussed in the literature (Briffa et al., 2001; Esper et al., 2002; Cook et al., 2004). Tree-ring chronologies are the main tool for reconstructing such changes with a high resolution in time. Studies on constructing millennial tree-ring chronologies, which are of special signifi- cance for estimating the amplitude of long-term climate fluctuations, have long been performed in Russia (Shiyatov, 1986; Vaganov et al., 1996; Naurzbaev and Vaganov, 1999; Hantemirov and Shiyatov, 2002; Nau- rzbaev et al., 2002, 2003). To reconstruct long-term temperature changes more accurately, it is important to obtain a denser network of such chronologies for high altitudes.

In 2003, specialists of the Sukachev Institute of For- est and the Tree Ring Laboratory of the University of Arizona took samples of larch (Larix gmelinii Rupr.) in the middle reaches of the Bol’shoi Avam River, on the northern edge of the Putoran Plateau, central Taimyr (70°30′ N, 93° 01′ E). The samples were collected on the southern and southwestern slopes near the timber- line. The nearest areas with available millennial chro- nologies, northeastern Taimyr and Mangazeya (Shiya- tov, 1986), were located east and west of the study region at distances of 400 and 700 km, respectively (Fig. 1).

A total of 118 samples were taken from living and dead trees. The age of the oldest living tree was 649 years. Dead trees were well preserved, as wood decom- position in the study region is suppressed due to severe climatic conditions. The ground layer that freezes in winter and thaws in summer is 60 cm deep. The soil horizon is shallow. Rock outcrops with coarse debris are a characteristic feature of the mesorelief. Rock streams cover up to 30% of the area in the middle parts of slopes and up to 50% of the area at the timberline. Slopes with terraces are covered by open larch forests with alder, dwarf birch, willow, and juniper in the undergrowth. Altitudinal zoning is well manifested. In particular, the upper boundary of forest associations lies at elevations of 360–380 m, and solitary larch trees of the prostrate life form occur even at 440 m a.s.l.

The material was processed in the laboratory by standard dendrochronological methods, including mea- surements in a semiautomatic LINTAB-II device, cross dating, verification of dating with the COFECHA pro- gram, assessment of basic parameters, and calculation of correlations with climatic factors (Methods…, 1990;

By cross-dating 81 samples, we constructed a tree- ring chronology for the period between 886 and 2003 (Fig. 2). A total of 16 080 tree rings were measured. The

(the Putoran Plateau). Its comparison with millennial chronologies for the Taimyr Peninsula and Mangazeya has shown that all these chronologies are fairly synchronous with respect to both high-frequency (annual) and low-frequency (long-term) components, although each has its specific regional features. The results of dendro- climatic analysis provide evidence for the prevailing influence of air temperature in July (compared to that in June) on the radial growth of larch in the middle reaches of the Bol’shoi Avam. Consistent long-term changes in radial tree increment (and in summer air temperature) in a large sector of the Subarctic over the past 1000 years have been revealed.

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proportion of missing rings was 1.4%, and the coeffi- cient of correlation between individual series averaged 0.66. The sensitivity of the chronology was 0.53, on average. The width of tree rings averaged 0.33 mm per year, reaching a maximum of 2.67 mm, and the root- mean-square deviation of the standardized chronology was 0.23. These parameters are similar to those of the tree-ring chronology for eastern Taimyr, where the average and maximum tree ring widths were 0.31 and 2.51 mm per year (Naurzbaev et al., 2002; Sidorova, 2003). For statistical analysis, we used our chronology beginning from 1355, as the corresponding interval was constructed on the basis of more than six trees and, therefore, was suitable for quantitative comparisons (Vaganov et al., 1996).

It was interesting to compare the chronology for the Avam region with millennial chronologies for the near- est subarctic regions of Siberia (i.e., for the equivalent climatic and physiographic regions) (Fig. 1). For this purpose, we chose tree-ring chronologies for northeast- ern Taimyr (71° 00′ N, 95° 30′ E) (Naurzbaev et al., 2002) and Mangazeya (66° 36′ N, 82° 16′ E) (Shiyatov, 1984, 1986). In both cases, strong correlations were revealed (R= 0.68, p < 0.0001 andR= 0.48, p < 0.0001, respectively). The correlation between chronologies for Avam and Mangazeya proved to be slightly weaker, as the distance between these regions is greater and site conditions are different (the mountain region of Puto- ran vs. lowland areas in the east of the Western Siberian Plain). Nevertheless, this correlation is statistically sig- nificant, which confirms that all these chronologies per- tain to the same climatic region. The same result was obtained previously with shorter time series (Vaganov et al., 1996).

An analysis of correlations with climatic variables provided evidence that summer air temperatures (in June and July) are the main factor determining variation in the radial increment of larch in the middle reaches of the Bol’shoi Avam River, with the July temperature being more important in this respect than the June tem- perature (R= 0.47, p < 0.01 vs.R= 0.30, p < 0.05). The primary importance of air temperature in July for the radial growth of larch was previously revealed in the tree-ring chronology for Mangazeya (Shiyatov, 1984; Vaganov et al., 1996). In the tree-ring chronology for Taimyr, the correlation of radial increment with the June temperature (R = 0.45) proved to be slightly stron- ger than that with the July temperature (R = 0.41) (Nau- rzbaev and Vaganov, 1999; Sidorova, 2003).

Taking into account the results of previous studies, it may be concluded that northern spurs of the Putoran Plateau are the place where the June temperature replaces the July temperature as the most significant factor of tree growth at the polar forest limit (Vaganov et al., 1996). This is evidence that the onset of the grow- ing season at the northern margin of the Putoran Plateau is retarded in western regions relative to that in the east- ern regions; i.e., the northern spurs of the plateau serve as a natural barrier to cold arctic air delivered by the cir- culation system prevailing in summer (Alisov, 1956). Temperatures of other summer or winter months proved to have no significant influence on variation in the radial increment of trees in any of the three chronol- ogies.

Consider correlations between the three chronolo- gies smoothed with a 41-year low-frequency filter in order to better reveal long-term changes in tree incre- ment (Fig. 3). In general, long-term changes in the tree

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