Dendrochronology Lab
The GECSC Dendrochronology Lab located in Denver, CO has an active program of tree-ring research in support of, and in collaboration with, USGS scientists, DOI partners, and regional and local stakeholders in the Rocky Mountain Region. Research focuses on growth responses to drought, fire, human influence and other disturbances and the ecological implications of land cover change over time.
News
Don’t eat that cookie! We need it for science.
Don’t eat that cookie! We need it for science.
Going to Extremes to Uncover the Secrets of Dinosaur's Ponderosa Pine
Going to Extremes to Uncover the Secrets of Dinosaur's Ponderosa Pine
Publications
Testing tree-ring cellulose δ18O with water isotopes for Holocene lake δ18O interpretations in the central Rocky Mountains USA
Stable isotopes of water preserved in geologic archives, primarily as oxygen (δ18O), have proven critical for documenting Earth’s climatic and hydrologic systems past and present. However, timescale differences of water isotope inputs to proxy systems and the signal embedded in long paleorecords often confound translation to observed hydroclimatic metrics. Here, a unique 20-year dataset...
Paleohydrological context for recent floods and droughts in the Fraser River Basin, British Columbia, Canada
The recent intensification of floods and droughts in the Fraser River Basin (FRB) of British Columbia has had profound cultural, ecological, and economic impacts that are expected to be exacerbated further by anthropogenic climate change. In part due to short instrumental runoff records, the long-term stationarity of hydroclimatic extremes in this major North American watershed remains...
Comparing tree-ring based reconstructions of snowpack variability at different scales for the Navajo Nation
Snowpack in the western U.S. is on the decline, largely attributed to increasing temperatures in the region. This is a critical issue for many Native American communities who disproportionately rely on local snow-fed water supplies. In light of a combined ongoing drought and limited climate information for the Navajo Nation, Navajo water managers face decision-making challenges...