History of Tree-Ring Research II

History of Tree-Ring Research II

January 16, 2009January 16, 2009

Douglass, A.E. 1929. The secret of the southwest solved by talkative tree rings. National Geographic Magazine 56(6):736-770.

Douglass in Storeroom

Laboratory of Tree-Ring Research Tucson, Arizona 1940

Edmund Schulman (1908 – 1958)

Edmund Schulman (1908 – 1958)

Florence Hawley

Bruno Huber (1899 – 1969)

Harold C. Fritts (1928 – )

Malcolm K. Hughes

Edward R. Cook

David W. Stahle

Henri Grissino-Mayer

Subfields of Dendrochronology

• Dendroarchaeology: Dating of Archaeological dwellings.• Dendroclimatology: Developing a record of past climate.• Dendrogeomorphology: Dating land movements such as

landslides in the past.• Dendrohydrology: Creating a record of past water availability

and flooding.• Dendroglaciology: Dating past movements of glaciers.• Dendrovolcanology: Dating the past eruptions of volcanoes.• Dendrochemistry: Using tree rings as a monitor of the

chemical makeup of the soil.• Dendroecology: Recording ecological processes such as tree-

line movement, insect outbreaks, or movement of invasive tree species.

• Dendropyrochronology: Dating the past occurrence of forest fires.

• Dendroentomology: The use of tree rings to reconstruct past population levels of insects.

• Dendromastecology: The use of tree rings to reconstruct fruiting events in trees.

Individual tree species that can live to more than 1,000 years,that we know of? • Intermountain bristlecone pine (Pinus longaeva D.K. Bailey), 4,844 years

old • Alerce (Fitzroya cuppressoides (Molina) Johnston), 3,620 years old • Giant sequoia (Sequoiadendron giganteum (Lindl.) Buchholz), 3,300

years old • Rocky Mountain bristlecone pine (Pinus aristata Engelm.), 2,425 years old • Coast redwood (Sequoia sempervirens (D.Don) Endl.), 2,200 years old • Foxtail pine (Pinus balfouriana Grev. & Balf.), 2,110 years old • Rocky Mountain juniper (Juniperus scopulorum Sarg.), 1,889 years old • Limber pine (Pinus flexilis James), 1,670 years old • Alaska yellow-cedar (Chamaecyparis nootkatensis (D.Don) Spach), 1,636• Baldcypress (Taxodium distichum (L.) Rich.), 1,622 years old • Western juniper (Juniperus occidentalis Hook.), 1,288 years old • Douglas-fir (Pseudotsuga menziesii (Mirb.) Franco), 1,275 years old • Huon pine (Lagarostrobus franklinii C.J. Quinn), 1,089 years old • Northern white-cedar (Thuja occidentalis L.), 1,032 years old • Himalayan Hemlock (Tsuga dumosa) 1,011 years old

International Tree Ring Data Bank (ITRDB)

http://www.ngdc.noaa.gov/paleo/treering.html

ITRDB Web site

ITRDB: International Tree-Ring Data Bank

The Ultimate Tree-Ring Web Pages:http://web.utk.edu/~grissino/