CANCELLED: Design and Deliver Effective Scientific Presentations 

(online only)

chaired by : Crivellaro, A. 

The phrase ‘giving a presentation’ strikes fear into the hearts of many. But presenting scientific research is an essential skill for young and experienced researchers. Therefore, I designed this hands-on workshop to guide students and scientists through what they need to know to deliver an effective presentation. The workshop is organized in two sessions of about 3 hours each (1 day in total). 
Session 1 (morning). Learn the key elements of an effective presentation. This first session will provide information, practical exercises and plenty of opportunities for discussion. It will explore how to refine speaking style, increase personal impact and how to plan and structure an effective presentation.
Session 2 (afternoon). Practice your presentation and receive peer and tutor feedback. This second session will occur a week after the first session. It aims to practice a short presentation in a supportive and friendly environment and to sharpen the skills required for an effective presentation.
 

openDendro: Advanced Open-source Tools for Dendrochronology and Paleoenvironmental Reconstruction 

(in person and online)

chaired by : Bunn, A.

We will hold a practical, skills-based workshop introducing openDendro -- an open-source framework of the base analytic software tools used in dendrochronology in both the R and Python programming languages. openDendro is a new unified set of tree-ring analysis tools in open-source environments that provides the necessary baseline for dendrochronologists to adopt open-science practices and increase both rigor and transparency in their work. The workshop will lead participants through some of the most  common tasks in dendrochronology (including detrending, chronology building, and crossdating) as well as data visualization. All examples and exercises will be presented in both R and Python.

Recommendations provided by the organizer:

• Can the participant follow online? Yes
• Does the participant need a laptop? Yes
• Will the participant require internet connection during the workshop? Yes
• Software that the participant needs to have installed:
  • R (www.r-project.org)
  • Rstudio (www.Rstudio.com)
• Additional remarks from the organizer: Before the workshop we will circulate a link with instructions for getting set up for the workshop.

Blue Intensity for Dendrochronology

(in person, online attendance for the talks only)

Chaired by: Wilson, R., Harley, G., Heeter, K., Reid, E. 

Blue Intensity (BI) is a cost-effective analytical method for measuring relative wood density in the rings of conifer tree species. Since early concept papers in the 1990s/2000s, there has been a recent explosion in the application of this method for both dendroclimatology and historical dating as well as other dendro-disciplines. The beauty of BI is that the analytical costs, mainly related to the cost of a high-quality scanner, are extremely cheap compared to traditional densitometric methods while training is also relatively simple. This means that compared to traditional ring density approaches, higher volumes of data can be produced. There are however limitations of the method with respect to wood colouration issues (i.e. heartwood/sapwood colour changes, fungal discolouration etc) and scanner resolution that can impact the quality of the derived data. In this workshop, through presentations and hands-on measurement and basic analysis, we will introduce the BI method and its application in dendrochronology and communicate both the strengths and limitations of the data produced by current laboratory methods. We will finish by introducing a range of possible solutions to these limitations. 

Recommendations provided by the organizer:

• Is the participant invited to follow interactively? No – we would prefer participants to be in-person although the presentations can be viewed online.
• Does the participant need a laptop? Yes – running windows OS (with .NET installed).
• Will the participant require internet connection during the workshop? Not necessarily as we can provide access to all materials prior to the conference. 
• Additional remarks from the organizer: The organizer will provide access to a google drive folder from which the software and images can be access in the week prior to the conference. Participants will be advised to download software (and install) the software before the workshop and they can also download the images.

Use and applications of the process-based model MAIDENiso

(in person and online)

Chaired by: Hermoso de Mendoza, I. Boucher, E. Gennaretti, F. 

MAIDENiso is a numerical process-based model that allows researchers to simulate the growth of a virtual tree. Using daily meteorological data, the model simulates the physical and physiological processes taking place in the tree and its environment, to produce daily and yearly outputs comparable to dendrological observations. The model has been adapted and used successfully in boreal regions in North America. In an inverse mode, tree-ring observations can be used to estimate past meteorology. 
MAIDENiso offers a detailed simulation of the complex processes taking place in a tree and the land surface, while keeping computational costs low. It is a good alternative to statistically-based response functions when exploring the mechanisms explaining the relationships between tree-ring proxies and climate, specially for complex process such as water isotopes. It simple to use in common laptops, and can be easily set up to work in a cluster to perform more complex experiments.
In this workshop, we will show you how to use MAIDENiso and the set of tools we have developed around it. These topics include:
-Downloading, compiling and running the code.
-Inputs and outputs of the model.
-R package “maidentools”, developed to facilitate running the model and analysing/visualizing the outputs.
-Modifying the code, modifying inputs and setting up synthetic experiments.
-Calibration procedure for unknown parameters.
-Inversion procedure to reconstruct past meteorologies.
-Using MAIDENiso in a cluster and parallelization of the calibration and inversion procedures.

Recommendations provided by the organizer:

• Can the participant follow online? Yes
• Does the participant need a laptop? Yes – it can run Windows, Mac, or Linux.
• Will the participant require internet connection during the workshop? Not necessarily as we can provide access to all materials prior to the conference. 
• Software that the participant needs to have installed:
  • R (www.r-project.org)
  • Rstudio (www.Rstudio.com)
  • maidentools package for R (https://dendro-eco.uqat.ca/maiden/download.aspx)
  • MAIDENiso (https://zenodo.org/record/5597877)
  • Any C++ compiler (recommended GNU compiler, https://gcc.gnu.org/)
• Additional remarks from the organizer: Please test beforehand that your C++ compiler is correctly installed and added to the path, so that you can compile MAIDENiso without errors. Write to ihmn.zgz@gmail.com for help (please only as last resource)

Best Practices for using tree-ring stable isotopes of Carbon and Oxygen in paleoclimate and ecophysiology.

(in person and online)

Chaired by: Belmecheri, S. Lavergne, A., Rodriguez Caton, M., Szejner, P., Daux, V.

The stable isotopic compositions of carbon and oxygen (d13C and d18O) measured in tree rings are valuable proxies for reconstructing paleoclimate and are increasingly used as paleophysiological proxies. Applying these proxies in ecophysiology and paleoclimate can be challenging as they rely on complex process-based models and poorly constrained input data. In recent years, however, significant progress has been made in bridging tree-ring stable isotopes with ecophysiological models enabling improved quantitative tree ring-based reconstructions and interpretations of tree’s physiological response to environmental changes such as the increase of atmospheric CO2 concentration and temperature, or changes in precipitation patterns.

This interactive workshop will focus on best practices for 1) using d13C to reconstruct ecophysiological indices; and 2) using d18O forward modelling for paleoclimate and ecophysiological reconstructions. Using a hands-on approach (R-script Notebooks), the workshop organizers will demonstrate  how researchers can work with tree-ring isotopic data in a comprehensive and reproducible way. This will include process-based models of photosynthesis and leaf water evaporation, and using state of the art input data and parameters.

The format of the workshop will correspond to executable demonstrations in R-Notebook (using some specific R-packages) in a collaborative environment. The demonstrations will be based on onboard datasets but will also include a chance for participants to use their own datasets.

Recommendations provided by the organizer:

• Can the participant follow online? Yes
• Does the participant need a laptop? Yes
• Will the participant require internet connection during the workshop? Yes (to log into Github)
• Software that the participant needs to have installed:
  • R (www.r-project.org)
  • Rstudio (www.Rstudio.com)
  • R markdown (https://rmarkdown.rstudio.com)
     

CANCELLED: Identifying wood

(online only)

Chaired by: Crivellaro, A. 

Wood identification lies at the base of dendroarchaeology and is a key piece of information towards dating wood. But identifying the wood we are dealing with is an often neglected step leading to possible misinterpretations. Therefore being able to observe a wood transverse section and identify the pattern of cells topical of a given species should be common knowledge for novice and experienced dendrochronologists. Building upon my experience in identifying commercial timbers, I will guide you into a step-by-step procedure to learn how to identify woods based on their anatomical characteristics. Once you will know the process and valuable resources in wood identification, you will be able to apply it over and over as the base for your dendrostudies.