Dendrogeomorphology Laboratory

 

Welcome to the The University of Western Ontario Dendrogeomorphology (Tree-Ring) Laboratory! The UWO Dendrogeomorphology Lab was established by Dr. Brian Luckman in the early 1980s and is part of the Department of Geography, located in the Social Science Centre on the University Of Western Ontario Campus in London, Ontario.

Most of our research has focused on the use of tree rings as dating and paleoclimatic tools in the Canadian Cordillera of Alberta and British Columbia.

This research is directed towards understanding the variability and controls of past climate. Understanding climate variability and developing records that demonstrate variability on decade to century timescales are central issues in climate change research and the modeling of future climate. Existing instrumental records can be used to document climate change over the last century but questions remain about whether these patterns have been stable over longer intervals of time. These questions can only be addressed by the development of high quality, annually or seasonally resolved proxy climate records. Paleoclimatology evaluates current climate conditions and future climate change within the context of the longer timeframe of natural climate variability provided by proxy climate records.

We also use tree-rings to date the magnitude, frequency and history of a range of natural phenomena including snow avalanches, debris flows, studies of tree-line dynamics and glacier fluctuations.

Over the last 25 years, we have developed a regional record of environmental change for the Canadian Rockies based on dendrochronological, ecological and glacier studies. Scientists at UWO have also been involved in collaborative research with several international climate change research groups, including; the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, the Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research, the Climatic Research Unit at the University of East Anglia, IANIGLA-CRICYT in Mendoza, Argentina and the Instituto Silvicultura of the Unviersidad Austral de Chile in Valdivia.

The following pages describe current research projects, information for undergraduate and graduate students and links to other paleoclimate researchers and agencies.