The phrase "individual proxies" refers to individual people or things that act as representatives or substitutes for others. They serve the purpose of standing in or acting on behalf of a group or larger entity. Full definition
In light of the comments by Craig Loehle and Willis Eschenbach, we decided to update our original draft to include sections, • Discussing the different reconstruction methods used by the 19 proxy - based estimates, and their relative advantages / disadvantages • Providing a more detailed discussion of the lack of consistency between individual proxies, and the importance of carrying out rigorous «sensitivity studies», including a discussion of Willis Eschenbach's cluster analysis. (oprj.net)
There are few that try to calibrate individual proxies to precipitation first then combine to estimate past global precipitation. (realclimate.org)
But regardless of the reasons you can take away many of the individual proxies and the basic picture remains unchanged — but of course, the more you remove the less information you have, and eventually, you don't have any information at all. (realclimate.org)