Tree-Ring Talk

Past climates of the Rocky Mountains: Cave speleothems reveal changing drought patterns through time

Speleothems are cave minerals that preserve signals of past climate in their geochemical composition. In the western United States (US), speleothem-based climate reconstructions can provide valuable insight into the long-term evolution of modern drought patterns that impact agriculture, ecosystems, and human communities today. The El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO) and Pacific Decadal Oscillation (PDO) are key drivers of cool-season precipitation variability and drought in the western US, including the Rocky Mountains.

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Showing the impact of scientific databases and collections

Many scientific and scholarly disciplines depend on the use of collections: collections of specimens housed in natural history museums, core repositories, or tree ring labs; or collections of data stored on servers or spreadsheets. Yet, these valuable and irreplaceable infrastructures often fade from public view — and consequently, from budget lines and funding priorities.

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Tree-rings reveal the legacy of Indigenous cultural burning in the Southwest USA

Studying the influence of Indigenous people on ancient and historical fire regimes has been methodologically challenging. In the Southwest United States, well-replicated fire histories suggest that abundant lightning and suitable climate conditions drove frequent low-severity wildfires in dry pine forests independent of human activities even as ethnography provided hints that highly mobile indigenous populations used fire in myriad land use contexts.

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Prometheus found: preserving the ephemeral through glass art

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Floods and droughts : Stable isotope compositions of plants to improve climate reconstruction in the semi-arid environment of Northern Botswana and the Zambezi region of Namibia

Northern Botswana and Namibia present semi-arid environment, where evaporation exceeds precipitation, interlaced by major river systems including the Zambezi, Kwando, and Okavango rivers. Water availability is the principal constraint on human livelihoods, ecosystems, and economic activities, with these rivers serving as critical resources for agriculture, domestic supply, fisheries, and tourism. Recent shifts in precipitation regimes are altering regional hydrological systems and affecting both ecosystems and water-dependent communities.