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Climate Reconstruction from Tree-Rings. AKA, how the past informs us about the future


Feb. 13, 2018, 3:30 p.m. - 4:30 p.m.
geology3656

Presented By:
David Frank
UAZ

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The growth rings of trees are an archive of plant responses to environmental change, and as such they have played an important role in reconstructing climate over the past centuries to millennia at annual resolution. Nearly everyone is familiar with tree-rings themselves, and can intuitively understand many applications of dendrochronology. Yet the process to reconstruct climate variation, and the climate reconstructions themselves, have been subject to misconceptions, uncertainty, and controversy. Some of this is part of the scientific process, and some is not. In this talk I aim to set the stage for a discussion about “everything you always wanted to know about tree-rings, but were afraid to ask” by providing an introduction to dendroclimatology. I will share our current understanding of temperature and hydroclimatic variation over the past 1-2 millennia. And I will also show examples of how tree-ring reconstructions have been, and could have been, applied to improve policy decisions and the management of resources.