Current and Past Projects of the
Laboratory of Tree-Ring Science
Climatology and Climate Studies
Past
Trends in Decadal-Scale Climate Inferred from
Old-Growth Longleaf Pine Stands in the Southeastern U.S.
Joseph P. Henderson and Henri D. Grissino-Mayer
This picture shows Lieutenant Colonel Joseph P. Henderson, who recently completed his Ph.D. at the Laboratory of Tree-Ring Science, kneeling next to a section cut from a longleaf pine stump that had been logged sometime in the past 10 years in Eglin Air Force Base near Pensacola, Florida. This one tree goes back to the early 1500s, and Joe collected over 100 similar samples from the area. Joe has also collected extraordinary samples from remnant longleaf pine trees in Texas and South Carolina. In his dissertation, Joe demonstrated how these pines revealed past trends in climate phenomena such as the El Nino-Southern Oscillation, the Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation, and even the Pacific Decadal Oscillation.
A PDF file
containing a complete copy of Joe's dissertation can be found here:
Joe
Henderson Dissertation
Oxygen Isotope Ratios in
Longleaf Pines as Proxy Indicators
of Past Tropical Cyclone Activity
Dana L. Miller, Henri D. Grissino-Mayer, and Claudia I. Mora
Tropical cyclones are known to cause depletions of oxygen-18 and therefore changes in oxygen isotope (18O/16O) ratios. If we can extract an isotopic record from the tree rings of longleaf pines growing in coastal locations, we could perhaps reconstruct land-falling hurricanes for hundreds of years for the coastal plain region of the Southeastern U.S. Dana's project is attempting to reconstruct hurricane activity for the past 200 years (and perhaps longer) from longleaf pine tree rings that came from a site in extreme southern Georgia (Lake Louise).
A PDF file
containing a complete copy of Dana's dissertation can be found here:
Dana
Miller Dissertation
A Millennial-Length
Reconstruction of Spring Rainfall
from Western Juniper in South
Central Oregon, USA
Christopher A. Underwood and Henri D. Grissino-Mayer
In 2001, Daniel Lewis and I collected over 100 cross sections from dead and downed juniper logs from trees that once had grown at Frederick Butte in southern-central Oregon. This site contains some of the most remarkable long-lived trees and dead wood anywhere in the U.S. Some of these trees are over 1000 years old, and the region around the butte is full of dead and downed remnant wood. Sadly, most of this wood makes its way to fireplaces in campsites. Chris has already dated some of these samples back to about AD 800.
A PDF file containing a complete copy of Chris's thesis can be found
here:
Chris Underwood Thesis
Oxygen Isotope Ratios of
Longleaf Pines as a Proxy of Past Hurricane Activity
along the Atlantic Seaboard
Whitney Nelson Kocis, Henri D. Grissino-Mayer, and Claudia I.
Mora
Here, Whitney confers with Tom Harlan of the tree-ring lab in Tucson. Whitney's project is an extension of the project begun by Dana Miller, and involves isolating a hurricane signal from tree rings of longleaf pines growing in South Carolina. Whitney hopes to provide high resolution information on hurricane activity by further subdividing the tree-ring data into smaller portions for isotopic analysis.
Assessing the
Dendrochronological Potential of Pinus occidentalis
in the Cordillera Central of the Dominican Republic
James H. Speer, Kenneth H. Orvis, Henri D. Grissino-Mayer,
Sally P. Horn, and Lisa M. Kennedy
Here, Henri cuts a small cross section from a standing snag of West Indian pine with a chain saw in the Conuco del Diablo ("Cornfield of the Devil") at approximately 3000 meters on the northern slope of Loma La Pelona. Our initial study investigated the potential of this species to yield past climatic information for a subtropical location. The block field contains hundreds of remnant pieces of well-preserved wood that should push the record back several more centuries. We've also sampled nearly 100 trees (mostly dead and downed) that contain a very clear record of past wildfires, and eventually we hope to push the fire history back for several centuries.
A PDF of our
published article in the journal Holocene can be downloaded
here:
Speer
et al Holocene Paper
A 600-Year Reconstruction of
Spring Precipitation from Longleaf Pines
in South-Central Georgia,
USA
Henri D. Grissino-Mayer and Jeffrey H. Tepper
We found an incredible area of relict longleaf pine stumps and remnants at Lake Louise, a research site owned by Valdosta State University in southern Georgia. We were surprised to find stumps that had remained intact since logging occurred around the turn of the 20th century. One reason these were so intact is because these trees had been turpentined previously, and the stumps were impregnated with resin. These samples have already provided a continuous well-replicated chronology back to AD 1421!
Climatic Variability in 20th
century Pacific Teleconnections in the Southeastern U.S.
Kevin J. Anchukaitis and Henri D. Grissino-Mayer
Here, Kevin is coring an eastern white pine in western North Carolina at a site called Brush Hollow. Kevin then analyzed other tree-ring chronologies from the Southeastern U.S. and found that these trees revealed a strong relation to Pacific Ocean teleconnections (ENSO and PDO) that appears to change over time.
This research is highlighted in this recently published article in Geophysical
Research Letters:
Anchukaitis
et al. GRL Paper
Fire History and Forest Ecology
The Fire History of Yellow Pine
Stands in the
Central Appalachian Mountains of Virginia, USA
Georgina DeWeese Wight, Henri D. Grissino-Mayer, Charles W.
Lafon, and Serena R. Aldrich
Daniel Lewis (right), Georgina, and I next to an amazing fire-scarred remnant of a Table Mountain pine that will easily provide a record of at least ten wildfires that occurred in the 1700s and 1800s. So far, we have about 300 samples collected from numerous sites in Virginia. In addition, we've collected cores from over 1000 living trees to document the age structure of all these sites to better understand the history of disturbances. We're finding that fires were very common in the 1700s and 1800s, occurring about once every 5-7 years.
Please visit
out project web site:
Central
Appalachian Fire Regimes
A PDF file
containing a complete copy of Georgina's Ph.D. dissertation can be found
here:
Georgina DeWeese Dissertation
A
Multi-scale Analysis of Disturbance Dynamics in Hardwood Forest
Communities
on the Cumberland Plateau, USA
Justin L. Hart and Henri
D. Grissino-Mayer
Although much is known about disturbances in old-growth forests of the Southeastern U.S., little is known about the disturbance regime of second-growth hardwood forests. Justin conducted his study on the Pogue Creek Natural Area, Fentress County, Tennessee, on the Cumberland Plateau. These forests were characterized by small-scale gap events caused by treefall. Justin's research showed that gap-scale disturbance processes have an influence on stand development and successional patterns of secondary hardwood forests in the absence of large-scale events.
A PDF file
containing a complete copy of Justin's Ph.D. dissertation can be found
here:
Justin Hart Dissertation
Fire history of
Caribbean pine (Pinus caribaea var. bahamensis (Griseb.)
W.H. Barrett & Golfari) forests on Abaco Island, The Bahamas
Alison C. Miller, Henri D. Grissino-Mayer, Sally P. Horn, and
Kenneth H. Orvis
One of the most amazing sites I've ever been to is the island of Abaco in the Bahamas. We found numerous well-preserved stumps of old-growth pines that should provide a record of past climate for several centuries. More importantly, we found hundreds of well-preserved fire-scarred samples throughout the island, on both living trees and remnant stumps left from logging that occurred in the early part of the 20th century. We were surprised to find these remnant stumps because fire is very frequent. On one stump, we've already counted 22 fire scars, about one fire every 5-7 years.
A PDF file containing a complete copy of Alison's
M.S. research paper can be found
here:
Alison Miller M.S. Research Paper
Stand Dynamics, Fire History, and Treeline Change in
Whitebark Pine Communities of Western Montana
Saskia
L. van de Gevel, David F. Mann, and Evan R. Larson
We are conducting a comprehensive study of the complex stand dynamics, disturbance regimes, and the effects of climate change on the whitebark pine ecosystem in western Montana. Dendroecological techniques and analyses will be used to provide high-quality, temporally precise information on the ecological status of this declining keystone species. For more information of the complex interactions between whitebark pine, grizzly bear and black bear populations, and Clark’s nutcrackers, please visit http://www.whitebarkfound.org.
A PDF file
containing a complete copy of Evan's master's thesis can be found
here:
Evan
Larson Thesis
A PDF file
containing a complete copy of David's dissertation can be found
here:
David Mann
Dissertation
Dendroecology of the Endangered Torreya
taxifolia in Northwestern Florida, USA
Elizabeth A. Atchley and Henri D. Grissino-Mayer
This project is perhaps one of the most significant yet conducted in our laboratory. Here, Beth Atchley holds a log of one of the most endangered conifer species in the world -- only 150 individuals of this species are left in northwestern Florida and extreme southwestern Georgia. Until recently, no one really knew why this species is dying, but Beth's research has shed light on possible changes in environmental factors that may be responsible. Primary among these changes are changes in the upland pine forests caused by logging and conversion to slash pine plantations. This change may have changed the light and temperature regime of the coves in which this species exists.
A PDF file
containing a complete copy of Beth's master's thesis can be found
here:
Beth
Atchley Thesis
Fire Regimes of Forested Kipukas
in El Malpais National Monument, New Mexico
Daniel B. Lewis and Henri D. Grissino-Mayer
Michael Armbrister steadies a log on Mesita Blanca while Daniel Lewis saws off a fire-scarred section. Daniel's thesis research has gathered information on the fire history of relict areas where human disturbances have been minimal. Daniel found that fire was very frequent on these isolated kipukas and saw little change in fire frequency into the 20th century. Daniel also conducted a comprehensive age structure analysis on two of these kipukas and found that the ages nonetheless indicated major disturbances during the 20th century. No evidence was found that high-severity wildfires occurred in these sites.
Please
visit out project web site:
El Malpais
Fire Regimes
A PDF file containing a complete copy of Daniel's master's
thesis can be found here:
Daniel
Lewis Thesis
Fire Regimes of Pinus pungens
Lamb. in Great Smoky Mountains National Park, Tennessee, USA
Michael R. Armbrister and Henri D. Grissino-Mayer
The status of Table Mountain pine as a component of forests in the southern Appalachian Mountains is unknown, because the species is largely dependent on fire (notice the fire scar on the snag). Fire has been nearly non-existent in this park since about 1934. table Mountain pine, however, largely depends on recurrent wildfires for its very existence. Michael was able to find out that fires had occurred with regular frequency prior to the park's establishment, about once every 7-10 years. More importantly, Michael found out that the maximum length of time the park could go without fire was about 80 years, and the park is fast approaching this critical fire-free interval.
Please visit
out project web site:
Table Mountain
Pine Fire Regimes
A PDF file containing a complete copy of Michael's master's
thesis can be found here:
Michael
Armbrister Thesis
Gap Phase Dynamics in Great
Smoky Mountains National Park, Tennessee, USA
Jacob J. Cseke and Henri D. Grissino-Mayer
This national park contains perhaps the most diverse system of forests anywhere in the world. Approximately two-thirds of the park contains old-growth forests, and Jake's research concerns the importance of gaps in closed-canopy forests for helping maintain this diversity. Jake sampled trees growing within and around about 18 gaps in various habitat settings, as well as the outer rings from the gapmaker itself. Jake found that the majority of gaps was associated with major ice storm events during the latter half of the 20th century.
A PDF file
containing a complete copy of Jake's master's thesis can be found
here:
Jake
Cseke Thesis
Cultural Heritage
The Historical Dendroarchaeology
of Governor John Sevier's Farmstead at Marble Springs
Jessica D. Brogden, Maggie R. Stevens, and Henri D. Grissino-Mayer
Governor John Sevier is one of the most prominent figures in the formative years of Tennessee. He was a powerful politician, successful general, first and only governor of the State of Franklin, established surveyor, and served as Tennessee's first governor, a post he would hold three times. Interestingly, he lived modestly outside of Knoxville Tennessee in this small log cabin. Our goal is to determine the construction date of this cabin as well as the construction date of the Walker Springs cabin also found on the farmstead.
Click here
to bring up a PDF file of our Final Report:
Marble Springs Final Report
Alfred's Cabin at The Hermitage:
Slave Cabin or Freedman's Cabin?
Daniel B. Lewis, Whitney Nelson Kocis, Henri D. Grissino-Mayer, and
Edward R. Cook
Alfred was born on Andrew Jackson's Hermitage Plantation about 1815 and lived there until his death in 1901. The staff at The Hermitage would like to furnish the cabin for interpretive programs but needs to know if the double-pen, saddlebag cabin was built by Alfred while he was a slave or later when he was a freedman. The cabin is rare, constructed exclusively with eastern redcedar logs, the first such structure we've encountered in Tennessee. We extracted about 90 cores from the cabin and successfully dated the construction of this cabin to the year 1843.
Click here
to bring up a PDF file of our Final Report:
Alfred's
Cabin Final Report
Tree-Ring
Dating the Joseph Hoskins' Log House, Tannenbaum State Park,
Greensboro, North Carolina
Joseph P. Henderson and Henri D. Grissino-Mayer
This two-story, clapboard-sided structure is the main feature at Tannenbaum State Park in Greensboro, North Carolina, believed to have been built around 1780 by Joseph Hoskins. The state park now occupies the location where the highly significant battle of the Guilford County Courthouse was fought in 1781 during the Revolutionary War. We extracted about 60 half-inch wide cores from most logs on both floors of this structure and should eventually be able to date its year of construction.
Click here
to bring up a PDF file of our Final Report:
Hoskins
House Final Report
The
Dendroarchaeology of Vat Timbers from Cagle Saltpeter Cave,
Tennessee
Annie Blankenship, Meta Pike, Georgina G. DeWeese, and Henri D.
Grissino-Mayer
Sometimes you get asked to do some very different and cool projects, such as this, the first ever study on saltpeter vats in the Southeastern U.S. This may be the first true application of "dendrospeleology." These square vats were used by miners in the 18th and 19th centuries to create saltpeter, a necessary ingredient for gunpowder, from deposits found inside these caves. Our goal is to find out when these vats were constructed and to determine their possible connections with wartime.
Tree-Ring Dating of an
Early-19th Century Crib Dam, Hope Mills, North Carolina
Henri D. Grissino-Mayer, Saskia L. van de Gevel, and Justin L.
Hart
A few years ago, a flooding rainfall caused the dam in Hope Mills, North Carolina, to breach, draining the Hope Mills Lake. The dam was originally constructed in the 1830s. The drainage of the lake revealed the original crib dam that had subsequently been covered with earth by its builders. This represents a unique opportunity for tree-ring dating because these logs were cut from old-growth longleaf pine trees with literally hundreds of rings in each! We also found a stand of old-growth living longleaf pines at an early 19th century church to help date these once-buried logs.
Click
here to bring up a PDF file of our Final Report:
Hope
Mills Final Report
Tree-Ring
Analysis of the Karr-Koussevitzky Double Bass
Henri D. Grissino-Mayer, Georgina DeWeese Wight, and Dustin A.
Williams
We were asked by the International Society of Bassists to analyze this famous double bass, reportedly built by the Amati brothers in Cremona, Italy, in 1611. In the first half of the 20th century, the bass belonged to the eminent bassist, composer, and conductor Serge Koussevitzky, and then by Gary Karr. Karr went on to become the most influential bassist of the 20th century. In 2005, we found that the Karr-Koussevitzky bass had the longest continuous tree-ring series ever found in a musical instrument, spanning 1445 to 1761. Therefore, the famous bass was not built in 1611 as everyone had originally thought.
A PDF of our
published article in the journal Tree-Ring Research can be
downloaded here:
Karr
Double-Bass Article
Tree-Ring Dating of Abraham
Lincoln's Birthplace Log Cabin, Hodgenville, Kentucky
Henri D. Grissino-Mayer and Dwight T. Pitcaithley
This cabin is housed in a beautiful memorial building, but some believe the cabin may not contain a single log associated with Abraham Lincoln. The tree rings in these logs could provide information on when the logs were cut. Eventually, we found several logs that dated to the 1840s and 1850s, but none that dated to the early 1800s. It's likely that not a single log in this cabin dates to the birth year of Abraham Lincoln (1809).
The Historical Dendroarchaeology
of the Rocky Mount Historic Site, Piney Flats, Tennessee
Henri D. Grissino-Mayer and Saskia L. van de Gevel
This complex houses numerous log structures that were reportedly built in the early 1770s, making these some of the oldest known buildings in Tennessee. This site was also supposedly home to Tennessee's first governor, William Blount, between 1790 and 1792. We found 25 logs in the William Cobb House and the adjacent Dining Room (formerly a kitchen) that were cut from 1826 to 1830, indicating the site was built beginning about 1826 and then occupied beginning about 1830. Unfortunately, we never found a single log that dated to the early 1770s.
Click here
to bring up a PDF file of our 2004 Final Report:
Rocky
Mount Final Report
Click here
to bring up a copy of our 2008 Final Report for the 2nd project:
Rocky
Mount Final Report Second Project
The Dendroarchaeology of the
Swaggerty Blockhouse, Cocke County, Tennessee
David F. Mann and Henri D. Grissino-Mayer
The Swaggerty Blockhouse is a historic structure reportedly built in 1787. The cabin is built from large red oaks that were sampled by David with an increment borer. He also collected ceramics, nails, and window glass in a dendroarchaeological study like no other. David found what some had thought previously. This was not a blockhouse but was instead a small cantilever barn. It was not built in 1787 but rather had been built about 1859/1860. Furthermore, it was used for hog raising and slaughtering by the farmer who built the structure, Jacob Stevens.
A PDF file
containing a complete copy of David's master's thesis can be found
here:
David
Mann Thesis
Dendrochronological Dating of
Musical Instruments made by Antonio Stradivari
Henri D. Grissino-Mayer, Paul R. Sheppard, and Malcolm K. Cleaveland
One of the most exciting projects I've ever been involved with. Some contend the "Messiah" violin could not have been made by Stradivari based on stylistic grounds. Funded by the Violin Society of America, we took our instruments to England to find out. Are the tree-ring dates contemporary with Stradivari? We found that indeed the tree rings dated to Stradivari's time (1577-1687) and therefore could not have been made by a copyist at a later time.
A PDF of our
published article in the Journal of Archaeological Science
can be downloaded here:
JAS
Violin Article
Tree-Ring Analysis of Boxwoods
from
Thomas Jefferson's Poplar Forest, Lynchburg, Virginia
Henri D. Grissino-Mayer and David F. Mann
An interesting project concerns the shrubs encircling the front carriage circle, seen to the right in the photo. If they were likely planted by Thomas Jefferson, they stay. If not, they could go. David and I spent two afternoons collecting small cross sections from as many dead stems as we could find. We found that the average age of a single stem was about 90 years, and each shrub contained third generation stems. This meant that the shrubs could indeed been planted by Thomas Jefferson.
Click here
to bring up a PDF file of our Final Report:
Poplar
Forest Final Report
Dendrochronological Dating of
the Devault Cabin, Johnson City, Tennessee
Henri D. Grissino-Mayer, David F. Mann, Bill Reding, and Daniel B.
Lewis
The Devault Cabin is believed to have been built in the late 1700s and likely served as a corn crib or other outbuilding as it was too small for human habitation. The dominance of pine logs, however, suggests a later date in the 1860s. Nonetheless, the rings could extend the tree-ring record for the area back to the 1600s and help date other nearby structures, such as the log structures at Rocky Mount a few miles north in Piney Flats, Tennessee.
Analysis of Wood Samples from a
Crime Scene using
Laser-Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy (LIBS)
Henri D. Grissino-Mayer and Madhavi Z.
Martin
In April 2004, we were contacted to help solve a homicide in Collin County, Texas. The victim's body had been burned under a pile of mesquite logs (upper left of photo) in an attempt to conceal evidence. Soon after, the sheriff's office found similar mesquite wood in a fireplace (lower right in photo) and people who attended the gathering around the fireplace knew from whom the wood came. If we could connect the two sets of wood, then the prosecutor's office would have convincing evidence that could help convict the suspect. To do so would require a relatively new technique called Laser-Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy.
Click here
to bring up a PDF file of our Final Report:
Libs
Final Report