To estimate the effects of a warmer and drier future climate on mountain forests, we analyzed the climate response of radial growth of five different conifer species along elevation transects between 1070 m and the forest line near 2400 m above sea level within an inner-alpine dry valley in the LTSER area Matsch|Mazia in Northern Italy. For additional information in growth processes and tree hydraulics automatic dendrometer measurements were used. As expected, we generally observed positiv...

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 obs...

Free, in person and onlineWe 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 dendro...

Africa is faced with a number of challenges including climate change and ecological disturbance due to various anthropogenic activities. These problems adversely affect the forests and also ecosystem services. My appreciation for the forests motivated me to pursure my undergraduate studies in Forestry. I first applied dendrochronology during my PhD research which focused on understanding the climate change vulnerability of the Zambezi teak forests in Zambia. However, lack of research facil...

Tree-ring time series provide long-term, annually resolved information on the growth of individual trees. However, public tree-ring archives contain a considerable portion of data collected from trees that have been selected with specific research questions in mind (e.g., for climate reconstruction).  This makes these archives a biased representation of the sensitivity of forest ecosystems to ongoing climate variation (e.g. temperature, precipitation), including non-stationarity (i.e....

Dendrochronology is considered one the most precise of all the scientific dating techniques. However, it requires long sequences of tree rings and a master record for both the species and region in question. At the University of Groningen, we have been pioneering a new approach to dating that combines the precision of dendrochronology with the versatility of radiocarbon dating. It relies on the detection of spikes in the annual radiocarbon record, thought to b...

Current and projected changes in climate are estimated to be from 10 to 100 times faster than the natural adaptive capacity of trees whose generation times are long. As extreme climatic events are becoming more frequent and exert a strong selection pressure on tree populations, there is an urgent need to better characterize the genetic variability involved in the response of trees to climate. There is currently a lack of knowledge on the role of genetic variability in tolerance to climatic...

Information garnered from historical timbers and wooden artifacts (e.g. houses, barns, ships) can greatly enhance our understanding of human, ecological, and climate history, especially in regions where few old-growth forests and trees remain, tree longevity is relatively short (less than 300-400 years), and environmental conditions break down wood rather quickly, like in mesic to wet regions Over the last decade plus, the application of tree-ring techniques on woo...

How old are tropical trees? This fundamental question has long driven the curiosity of laymen and scientists. But only recently, a great number of studies conducted by many brave dendrochronologists resulted in a significant tree-ring-based knowledge that allows us to start accurately estimating tree ages across the globe. As science goes, not only knowing the longevity of tropical trees is essential to understanding forest dynamics and its role in biogeochemical cycles, but one must also ...

A gap of millennial tree-ring data suitable for dendroclimatology has long been evident in the North American boreal forest. In my talk, I will describe the adaptive approach we have developed to build and improve a data network for millennial dendroclimatology in the eastern Canadian taiga. Recurrence of stand replacing wildfires is the most important constrain to the elaboration of long tree ring chronologies, which can only be developed away from regions ...

Allies have emerged as key enablers of diversity and inclusivity initiatives in the workplace, in professional associations, and in everyday life. But what is an ally? What skills are required to be an effective ally? How do we hold ourselves and our community members accountable for being effective allies? This symposium will provide a deeper understanding of what it means to be an ally and the skills to help advance allyship as individuals and as a community. Fur...