NSF Award
2401699
The width of tree rings are more sensitive to dry extremes than wet extremes in rainfall. Therefore long-term records from tree rings on past rainfall do not robustly record wet extremes. This bias in the baseline data of the past rainfall variability is problematic for water management and projecting the impact of future rainfall extremes. The goals of this project are to use dendrometers (instruments that record tree growth in real time) to measure the response of tree growth to rainfall at four sites that are part of the AmeriFlux network, sites that have weather stations that measure detailed records of rainfall through time. The investigators will use what they learned from the dendrometer study on how trees respond to wet extremes to refine reconstructions of rainfall and wet extremes from the past from an existing archive of tree ring cores, and use models to study the uncertainty in tree ring reconstructions of rainfall extremes. The project will include training of a postdoc, graduate student and undergraduate students, and public outreach events on climate change through collaboration with a nonprofit cinema's "Science on Screen" series.<br/><br/>Tree-ring based hydroclimate records of wet extremes are not as robust, which is problematic for water management and projecting the impacts of future hydroclimate extremes. The goals of this project are to use dendrometers to measure how tree growth responds to changes in the frequency, intensity and timing of precipitation in trees at sites in the AmeriFlux network in Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado and Indiana; reconstruct wet extremes of precipitation from previously collected tree ring width data in the International Tree Ring Database (ITRDB) in a variety of climate zones in the USA; and use forward proxy modeling to evaluate uncertainties in tree-ring hydroclimate reconstructions and estimate the impact of future hydroclimate extremes on forest health. The Broader Impacts consist of training a postdoc, graduate student, and undergraduate students; and climate communication in partnership with a nonprofit cinema’s “Science on Screen” series.<br/><br/>This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.
