This page contains information about graduate and undergraduate courses taught by faculty and affiliates of the Laboratory of Tree-Ring Research. Course numbers, cross-listings, and offerings vary by semester, so please contact the instructor or the Lab for current scheduling or consult the General Course Catalog for more information. Many courses at the University of Arizona are cross-listed in multiple departments.
Dendrochronology Sequence Courses
The LTRR offers fundamental and more advanced training in dendrochronology for both undergraduates and graduate students. This includes an undergraduate Course-Based Research Experience (CURE), a co-convened 2 class sequence of Introduction to Dendrochronology and Methods in Dendrochronology, and advanced graduate seminars on specific and cutting-edge research topics in the field.
GEOS 275 - Tree-ring time machines: Research experience in dendrochronology
3 units · Instructors: Bryan Black; Soumaya Belmecheri; Agata Buchwal; David Frank
In this course, students learn the fundamentals of the scientific research generally, and in dendrochronology specifically, by engaging in a novel, hands-on, societally-relevant research project anchored in the earth, environmental, and archeological sciences. Topics covered include the scientific method, fundamentals of dendrochronology, data visualization and basic analysis, and scientific communication. This course is intended for students from any background and with no prior experience who are interested in enhancing their science skills through a discovery-driven research experience.
GEOS/ANTH /WSM/GEOG 439A / 539A — Introduction to Dendrochronology
4 units · Instructors: Agata Buchwal; Valerie Trouet; David Frank; Malcolm Hughes
In this course students will learn the scientific basis, techniques, and applications of dendrochronology. We will study the biological basis of tree-ring research and the central principles of dendrochronology. After studying fundamental concepts students will learn about applications of dendrochronology in different disciplines via lectures and discussions with leading dendrochronologists at the Laboratory of Tree-Ring Research. During intensive, weekly laboratory sessions and a weekend field trip students will learn the practical skills of specimen collection, preparation, observation, and the most important method and principle of dendrochronology -- crossdating. At the end of the course, students will be able to collect tree-ring samples, prepare and date the samples, and build a local chronology. Finally, students will be able to evaluate dendrochronological analyses, and interpret their own data for specific research issues.
GEOS/ANTH/WSM 497C/597C — Methods in Dendrochronology
2 units · Instructors: Bryan Black; David Frank; Paul Sheppard
To actively engage in and learn basic analytical steps of dendrochronology, primarily measurement and data checking as well as chronology building and interpretation using a real collection of tree-ring samples.
GEOS 585A — Applied Time Series Analysis
3 units · Instructors: Kevin Anchukaitis; David Meko
Analysis tools in the time and frequency domains are introduced in the context of sample data sets drawn from ecology, hydrology, climatology and paleoclimatology. Students optionally use their own data in assignments applying methods.
GEOS 595E — Topics in Dendrochronology
1 units · Instructors: All LTRR faculty may offer seminars in their areas of speciality
One or more colloquium module topics are offered each semester to respond to timely research topics in dendrochronology and related disciplines, and to address the needs of an ever-changing stream of graduate students. May be repeated for a total of 9 units of credit.
Other Courses from LTRR Faculty
GC 170A1 — Introduction to Global Change
3 units · Instructors: Steven Leavitt
Anyone following current events cannot help but be aware of the growing number of reports about changes taking place on our Earth, for example related to atmospheric temperatures, forest decline, hurricanes, wildfires, glaciers and ice sheets, mineral and water resources, etc. Global Change Science is a rapidly developing multidisciplinary field that addresses (a) the natural operation of Earth's atmosphere, biosphere, hydrosphere and lithosphere, (b) the natural and human-induced ("anthropogenic") mechanisms by which these systems may be altered, and (c) the nature of the changes. The consequences of such changes, whether natural or anthropogenic, could clearly be important to climate, agriculture, commerce, and human health on our planet. This course takes an “Earth System” (rather than a strict “climate change”) approach to looking at our planet and the changes that have occurred and are occurring. Students will learn physical and chemical characteristics of Earth systems advanced in this class as a prelude to a more complete and thoughtful analysis of major global change issues. In addition to learning the principles and jargon of global change science, and our limitations in understanding of the Earth System, the course will promote improved writing skills and critical thinking in writing exercises, lectures, and group activities.
GEOS 195D — Sense of Place
1 units · Instructors: Nick Kessler; Jessica Kapp; Paul Sheppard; Gary Huckleberry
Students are introduced to the geology and ecology of Tucson and surrounding mountain ranges, including interactions between past and present societies with desert and forest environments. Four Saturday field trips (one per month) are scheduled during the semester, each emphasizing a particular region with unique geological and biological aspects.
ANTH 204 — Cultures, Catastrophe and Climate
Instructors: Charlotte Pearson
Climate change and natural disasters proliferate our modern media, but they are nothing new for human populations. This course will take you on a journey around the world, through many different time periods to look at the ways in which individuals and societies have responded to climate changes and catastrophic environmental events. We will explore evidence from ancient and modern texts, oral histories, art and the archaeological record along with a range of scientific evidence about past environments, focusing in particular on tree-ring and other high resolution archives. We will consider the role of cultural expression in shaping the way societies explain, manage and mitigate for catastrophic change, how the cultural record can be used to inform environmental reconstructions and how climatic and geological “catastrophe” can seed an artistic and poetic renaissance.
GEOS 220 — Environmental History of the Southwest
3 units · Instructors: Nick Kessler; Paul Sheppard
Environmental and cultural history of the American Southwest emphasizing discovery of the past using historical science techniques of tree-ring and packrat midden analyses as well as repeat photography and alluvial stratigraphy.
ANTH/AIS 346 — Clovis To Coronado
Instructors:
Investigates native inhabitants of the US Southwest from its initial colonization over 11,000 years ago to the arrival of Europeans in AD 1540. Surveys past societies of the Southwest, including where they lived, their lifeways, and their material culture.
RNR 355 — Introduction to Wildland Fire
3 units · Instructors:
Introduction to Wildland Fire provides students with a broad, balanced understanding of fire as a biophysical process. We explore fire from many perspectives, including physics, ecology, biogeography, management, policy, and economics. The course strives to make our study of fire interesting and relevant in the contemporary world by examining how such factors as climate change, invasive species, and land use influence how fire interacts with the landscape, and how human activities affect fire as an Earth system process. We also examine a range of fire management strategies including fire suppression, prescribed fire, wildland fire use, and landscape restoration ecology. The course will provide a global perspective on fire, with primary emphasis on ecosystems of western North America. Fire is an increasingly important focus in the ecology and management of most temperate ecosystems. RNR355 addresses topics of interest to students studying the ecology and management of wildlife, range ecosystems, fisheries, and forests, as well as in landscape ecology, conservation and restoration biology. To obtain the maximum benefit from the course, and to contribute to group discussions, students should have completed at least two semesters of introductory biology. A course in ecology and/or natural resource management is recommended but not required. Students with questions about their level of preparation are encouraged to contact the instructor prior to registration.
ECOL/GEOS/RNR 406R/506R — Conservation Biology
3 units · Instructors: Margaret Evans
Biological principles applied to protection and recovery of threatened and endangered species and the processes which link species in natural ecosystems. Biological basis for conservation laws and regulations. Distribution, valuation and sustainable production of biodiversity benefits for humanity.
RNR433 - Forest Ecology
3 units · Instructors: Margaret Evans
The objective of this course is to develop a better understanding of how forests work. Forests provide many benefits to humanity, including wood, water resources, and habitat for wildlife. In addition, they play a key role in the global carbon cycle. A 2018 U. S. National Academies of Sciences report advocates for using afforestation, reforestation, and improved forest management as \"Negative Emissions Technologies\" to draw CO2 out of the atmosphere. At the same time, we see forests dying in response to drought and going up in smoke in massive wildfires. Can we restore the Earth's climate system with forests, and preserve the many benefits to humanity provided by forests? The course begins with a survey of the diversity of forests at the global scale. We'll then consider forests from the ground up (soils and ecohydrology), proceeding to the physiology of individual trees, what controls tree growth, followed by forest demography, including forest stand development, regeneration, and tree mortality, then landscape-scale processes (disturbance ecology), succession, and resilience ecology, ending with forests as ecosystems. Forest models, forest management, forest wildlife, and forest restoration will be considered throughout.
RNR 496B/696A — Fire Ecology Seminar
2 units · Instructors:
Fire ecology is the study of roles that fire plays in ecosystem function and structure. Fire is a keystone process in grasslands, shrublands, savannahs, and many forested systems. Recent anthropogenic changes — such as the spread of invasive species — are changing the fire regimes of many ecosystems, including the Sonoran Desert. In the Southwest, recent large fires may be pushing ecosystems past tipping points into new configurations. We will study these and other topics in a student-led seminar format, reading and discussing papers in classic and current literature. Students in this seminar will obtain a broad, informed view of the roles that fire plays in a variety of ecosystems in a changing world.
GC/GEOS/HWR 572 — Global Biogeochemical Cycles
3 units · Instructors: Soumaya Belmecheri; Steven Leavitt
This course provides a forum for students in global change-related fields to study major processes affecting global fluxes of chemical species. Because of the multi-disciplinary nature of understanding global biogeochemical cycles (GBC), students will be exposed to scientific fields outside of their major. Content will emphasize fluxes of chemical constituents between reservoirs at the Earth's surface particularly those related to biosystems, and to processes involved in chemical transfers and transformations. Particular attention will be directed toward global perturbations. Central threads will be the carbon, nitrogen, and water cycles. Class will meet to discuss topics and readings, with outside speakers with particular expertise in some aspect of GBC, and visits to labs around campus whose activities have important linkages to GBC studies.
RNR696A — Scientific Writing
1 units · Instructors: Valerie Trouet; David Moore
In this class, we aim to cover (1) the anatomy of abstracts and scientific papers and the submission process, (2) writing productivity, (3) writing quality, and (4) writing management. The class will be a combination of in-class exercises and discussions, prepared reading and writing, and in-class peer-review. Class limited to 10 students.