We examined the effects of large-scale modes of climate variability on regional fire history of red pine forests of eastern North America using (a) a network of sites with fire scar-based reconstructions of fire histories over 1675-1900 AD, (b) reconstructions of circulation indices (1675-2019), and (c) the 20th century observational records of weather (1950-2019) and fire (1959-2019). In exploring climate-fire relationships over the distribution range of red pine, we hypothesized that the...

Session reescheduled from June 28th to June 29th

We examined the effects of large-scale modes of climate variability on regional fire history of red pine forests of eastern North America using (a) a network of sites with fire scar-based reconstructions of fire histories over 1675-1900 AD, (b) reconstructions of circulation indices (1675-2019), and (c) the 20th century observational records of weather (1950-2019) and fire (1959-2019). In exploring climate-fire relationships over the distribution range of red pine, we hypothesized that the...

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...

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 wo...

Recent studies have shown that long-lived tropical trees are able to recover from senescence stages and maintain high rates of aboveground carbon and biomass accumulation throughout their life span. In this study, we present a tree-ring-based analysis to estimate the annual accumulation of aboveground biomass (AGB) and carbon (C-accumulation) of an Ocotea porosa tree over the last five centuries (1485–2016). The study site is located in southern Brazil, under a subtropical climate. AGB was...

Dendrochronological archives in the tropics of the Americas have been under-studied for a long time. Some of the challenges include the Identification of tree-ring boundaries in certain tree species, absence of winter dormancy associated to low temperatures in most of the cases, and logistic difficulties of fieldwork in remote sites. However, part of the slow progress is also related to the fact that historically much less resources have been inv...