Niagara Escarpment Tree-Ring Project

Columbia University, New York NY

Investigators

Abstract

This proposal seeks support for dendrochronological research on the long-lived conifer northern white cedar, found growing on the cliffs of the Niagara Escarpment in Canada. Previous research by Canadian scientists resulted in the development of a published 1,783 year ring-width chronology from the Bruce Peninsula in Ontario, and we have an unpublished extension of this chronology, which spans nearly 3,000 years. The potential for further extension has been clearly demonstrated through the discovery of abundant subfossil material. The proponents have been given access to, and permission to use, the entire collection of more than 2,500 living and dead tree core and section samples collected over the past decade by the Canadian research team at the University of Guelph. They propose to catalog and analyze these samples, developing the strongest subset of samples to use for dendroclimatic analysis. They also propose to develop two new chronologies, from the far western and northern extensions of the Escarpment, and to sample further on the Bruce Peninsula on the eastern extreme, in order to more completely model the climate signal of T. occidenta/is across space and time. The second year of this project will be dedicated to dendroclimatic analyses, toward the goal of climate reconstruction.