Tree-Ring Talk

Introduction of dendrochronology to the study of archaeological timber and built heritage in Portugal

“Invisible Woods” is an interdisciplinary project involving ecologists, archaeologists, art historians, engineers, and architects. The challenge is to engage these different mindsets and converging that knowledge to the dendrochronological process and use it for study and examination of timbers preserved in historic buildings and archaeological sites, including rescue operations.

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Understanding growth performance of European oaks towards their distribution boundary to the Mediterranean region: A combination of dendrochronology, quantitative wood anatomy, and xylogenesis

Oaks are keystone species in European temperate forests. Nemoral oaks (Quercus robur, Q. petraea) are widespread all throughout the continent, but reach their southern distribution boundary in northern Iberia. In the Mediterranean Region, they are replaced by evergreen oaks, but ‘sub-Mediterranean oaks’, i.e., drought-resistant deciduous oaks with marcescent leaf habit usually occur at the transition areas. But according to prediction models, climate change is expected to modify the future distribution areas of these species.

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Winds above as seen by plants below

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Temperature sensitivity shift on tree growth at the Northern Hemisphere’s highest tree line: What European larch has to tell in the Alps

Does global warming increase or decrease tree growth at the alpine tree line?

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Accounting for non-stationarity when analyzing ecological time series

Increasingly studies highlight the non-stationary features of population dynamics. For instance, recent studies have shown that population dynamics can switch between different dynamics at multi-decadal scales, triggered by small environmental changes. These regime shifts were observed in different regions for different species. Transient behaviors in population dynamics have also been documented in epidemiology. Long-term changes in climate, human demography and/or social features of human populations have considerable effects on the dynamics of numerous epidemics.