The Science

The Dendrochronology Field School (DFS) is an annual, ten-day, field-based activity that teaches the tools of dendrochronology, provides networking opportunities for students and professionals, and expands the benefits of dendrochronological records to forest managers. Support for DFS will catalyze new activities focusing on understanding the mechanisms behind the increases in global forest mortality, which has become more widespread than has been documented in preceding centuries. Understanding the mechanisms behind this forest mortality is critical for the development of intelligent, timely, and science-driven management responses to these mortality events. Each field school event provides professional development for approximately 25-50 individuals, while educating participants about management information needed to sustain these forests. The field school will continue its strong record for broadening gender and ethnic diversity among scholars in dendrochronology. Opportunities for undergraduate scholarships will be provided to students from underrepresented groups, and graduate research fellowships will help educate and train students in professional presentation of the findings from the field school.

DFS has over 25 years of experience bringing together a diverse group of scholars to learn cutting-edge dendrochronology science for the continuous improvement of research in the forestry sciences and the better management of forest resources. For this series of field schools, participants will engage research projects related to, but not limited to, fire history, insect-outbreak reconstructions, climate reconstructions, analyses of stand-age structure across an elevational gradient, and sclerochronology, which is the examination of annual rings in bony structures such as those found in clams and the ear bones of fish. Field school researchers might also use innovative research techniques to examine quantitative wood anatomy (the examination of individual cells of growth in the tree rings) along with stable isotopes to tease apart relationships among climate, fire, and insect outbreaks on forest mortality. These research activities help participants to better understand the direction that these forests are naturally trending so that future conditions for these forests can be predicted more accurately and more effective forest management strategies can be implemented. Beyond these learning experiences, the field schools provide networking opportunities for students and professionals and expand the benefits of dendrochronological records to forest managers.