Bannister 110

Snow cover monitoring — challenges and possibilities

There is an undisputed need to increase accuracy of snow cover estimation in regions of complex terrain, especially in areas dependent on winter snow accumulation for a substantial portion of their water supply, such as the Western United States, Central Asia, and the Andes.

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Biometric and eddy-covariance based estimates of above-ground carbon uptake

We compare above-ground carbon uptake at five eddy-covariance forest stations in Europe derived from tree-rings and CO₂ fluxes which show highest agreement at seasonal timescales. Carbon uptake rates between 65 and 225 g C m² y⁻¹ could be partitioned into volume increase (Jan–Jun) and cell-wall thickening and storage (Jul–Sep).

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A Paleo-Perspective on Precipitation Seasonality from Central Idaho Tree Rings

Douglas fir and limber pine tree rings were collected from lower forest border sites across central Idaho. Sub-annual tree-ring chronologies were used to independently reconstruct seasonal precipitation over the past six centuries. Singular spectrum analysis indicates that annual and summer through winter precipitation exhibits significant decadal and multidecadal variability, whereas spring precipitation shows energetic behavior only at interdecadal timescales.

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Mekong River flow reconstructed from tree rings

The Mekong River is an important transboundary water resource for a large part of southeast Asia. Here, we reconstruct the flow of the Mekong River in its upper and lower basin over the last three centuries using tree-ring chronologies from southeast Asia. Apparently extreme low flow events, like those that occurred in 2010, are not exceptional over the length of the reconstruction. Flow varies on interannual to decadal time scales and shows a recent increase in the lower basin, both of which have implications for future sustainable development in the watershed.

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Joint event: Laboratory of Tree-Ring Research and School of Anthropology --- A 2364-year oak chronology for the Aegean and its implications

Forty years of dendrochronological collecting in the Eastern Mediterranean have until now been stymied by the lack of suitable timbers from the 500 years on either side of the Year 1. Roman buildings have plenty of beam-beds but no preserved timbers. Recently an enormous $5 billion metro/subway project through downtown Istanbul/Constantinople has provided the missing link: some 4000 oak pilings from a long series of Byzantine and Late Roman docks and other structures. Three long chronologies, adding up to 1441 years so far, have enabled us to fill a number of gaps and to build a continuo