Part 1: Exploring Tree-ring Sites Around the World

In Part 1, students explore the International Tree-Ring Databank and investigate what kind of research is being done at three different sites around the world. Then they use Google Scholar to look at the research papers of a dendrochronologist from one of their sites, read and summarize on the their abstracts.

Part 2: Explore the Research Sites

In part 2, students explore three regions around the world to understand the setting and ecology of each region they are studying. They use Google Maps to investigate the type of trees and vegetation at each site.

Part 3: Measuring Ring Width to Determine Climate Change in the Past

In part 3, students use a quantitative method to measure the rings to produce a time-series graph of a tree-ring core sample and then combine their results with their classmates to produce a preliminary tree-ring record for different regions around the globe.

Part 4: Creating Long Records by Combining Living and Dead Wood

In Part 4, students evaluate a Northern Hemisphere temperature reconstruction based, in part, on tree-ring records from the sites that you virtually explored.

To download one of the PDF or Word files below, right-click (control-click on a Mac) the link and choose "Save File As" or "Save Link As."

• Student Activity Sheet - ([file 129210 PDF'])(Word (Microsoft Word 2007 (.docx) 67kB Oct17 17));
  Suggested Answers -- educator-only file
  Hide
  Suggested Answers

  
  This file is only accessible to verified educators. If you would like access to this file, please enter your email address below. If you are new to the site, you will be asked to complete a short request form. If you have already been verified by the project, you will be taken directly to the file download page.

  Email Adress Submit

  )
  • To add a hands-on component, consider purchasing a core apparatus (about $240) Forestry Suppliers. Visit The Ultimate Tree-Ring Web pages for tips, advice on cleaning kits for your core apparatus, and more information.
  • Have ImageJ (more info) downloaded on all student computers or give them the link to download it themselves.
  • If you would like students to learn the rudiments of ImageJ on an individual basis have them go through the ImageJ Beginner's Tutorial .
  • Begin the lab by looking at the ITRDB site map presented at the beginning of the lab. Ask students why there are so many tree-ring sites in some regions and so few in others. Ask them what kinds of trees they would see out to study long-term changes in climate.
  • Make sure students are able to access the ITRDB site.
  • Go through the entire exercise.
  • End the lab with a discussion of what kinds of research studies they found interesting in different parts of the world.
  • If students are not familiar with how to navigate in Google Maps, help them review the Mendenhall glacier site to get them started.
  • Consider playing the D'Arrigo video for students then answer the Stop and Think questions in a class discussion.
  • Wrap up this section of the lab with a discussion of how these three sites differ. How are they the same? Which one would students most like to visit?
  • If you are not familiar with measuring on images with ImageJ, review the ImageJ tutorial found here.
  • Split the class into research groups of 3 or 4 students. Each research group should be responsible for analyzing one of the 9 cores.
  • Help students through an initial measurement using ImageJ to get them started. While you are doing the measurement, point out the system used to mark decades, and periods of 50 and 100 years of time on the tree-ring core samples.
  • Go over the definition of age trends and de-trending and explain that the vertical axes of the master chronologies is ......

 

• Cook ER, Esper J, D'Arrigo RD (2004) Extra-tropical Northern Hemisphere land temperature variability over the past 1000 years. Quaternary Science Reviews 23: 2063"2074.
• Solomina O, Wiles G, Shiraiwa T, D'Arrigo R,, 2007, Multiproxy records of climate variability for Kamchatka for the past 400 years, Climate of the Past, European Geosciences Union (EGU), 2007, 3 (1), pp.119-128
• Wiles GC, Barclay DJ, Calkin PE, . (2008) Century to millennial-scale temperature variations for the last two thousand years inferred from glacial geologic records of Southern Alaska. Global and Planetary Change 60: 115"125
• GregoryW, R D'Arrigo, D Barclay, R Wilson, S Jarvis, L Vargo, D Frank, 2014, Surface air temperature variability reconstructed with tree rings for the Gulf of Alaska over the past 1200 years ( This site may be offline. ) . Vol 24, Issue 2.
• Davi N, D'Arrigo R, Jacoby G, Nachin B. J Li, A Curtis, 2015, A Central Asian Millennial Temperature Record based on Tree Rings from Mongolia. Quaternary Science Reviews 121, 89-97
• Wilson R, Anchukaitis K, Briffa K, Büntgen U, Cook E, D' Arrigo R, Davi N, Esper J, Frank D, Gunnarson B, Hegerl G, Klesse S, Krusic P, Linderholm H, Myglan V, Peng Z, Rydval M, Schneider L, Schurer A, Wiles G, and Zorita E, 2016, Northern hemispheric millennial temperatures from tree-rings: Part I: the long term context. Invited paper, Quaternary Science Reviews. DOI: 10.1016/j.quascirev.2015.12.005
• Anchukaitis, K., Wilson, R., Briffa, K., Büntgen, U., Cook, E., D' Arrigo, R., Davi, N., Esper, J., Frank, D.,Gunnarson, B., Hegerl, G., Helama, S., Klesse, S., Krusic, P., Linderholm, H., Myglan, V., Osborn, T., Rydval, M., Schneider, L., Schurer, A., Wiles, G., Zhang, P. and Zorita, E., 2017, Last millennium Northern Hemisphere summer temperatures from tree rings: Part II: the spatial context. To be submitted to Quaternary Science Reviews.
• Mann ME, Bradley RS, Hughes MK (1999) Northern Hemisphere temperatures during the past millennium: Inferences, uncertainties, and limitations. Geophysical Research Letters 26: 759"762.