Tree-Ring Talk

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.

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Tree Ring Talk

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Space-for-time substitution: a widespread and dangerous practice in predictive ecology

Read more about Space-for-time substitution: a widespread and dangerous practice in predictive ecology

Tree Ring Talk

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Seeing the light and feeling the heat? Reconstructing canopy disturbance and climate from ring widths

Canopy disturbance events in forests (or ‘release events’) often increase light availability and growth rates for surviving trees. Using ring widths, release-detection methods identify the onset of rapid growth associated with these events enabling reconstructions of forest disturbance history. Conversely, dendroclimate reconstructions minimize these rapid growth responses by detrending entire ring-width time series to resolve underlying climate signals.