Evidence of annual tree rings in the wood of tropical tree species exists for almost 150 years, but only in the last decades has tree ring analysis (dendrochronology) been applied more widely to research fields such as ecology, climatology, hydrology, archeology, biogeochemistry and management in tropical forests. Tree age, a quite trivial information for trees in boreal and temperate climates, is an important ecological parameter in the tropics with regard to the sustainable forest management, conservation, calculations of carbon turnover rates and impacts of climate change on forest dynamics. Climate-growth relationships based on tree rings and stable carbon isotopes in tree rings indicate that a variety of climatic factors influence tropical tree physiology and that growth and responses may differ between species and ecosystems. However, there is still a large gap in knowledge on responses of trees to climate. This is all the more relevant in the tropics as tropical forest are large carbon pool and responses of forest to climate change may thus strongly affect the evolution of future climate change.
Advancement of the field of dendrochronology is of further importance in the tropics, as instrumental climate data are of low resolution and short-time span, but few climate reconstructions from within the tropics exists so far. A particular challenge for dendroclimatological studies in the tropics is the development of high-resolution, climate-sensitive proxies to reconstruct precipitation and hydrological regimes going back to pre-industrial eras. Rest could be left out: Knowledge on the natural variability of precipitation, temperature and hydrological regimes for periods from before the rise of atmospheric CO2 is essential in the discussion on climate change in the tropics, Growth models for commercial tree species contribute significantly to increase the ecological sustainability of current management practices for timber resources in the tropics.
This workshop is organized by an international team of researchers with a vast experience in tropical dendrochronology. The aim of the workshop is to teach on the on history, basics and principles of dendrochronology in the tropics, to make participant familiar with common methodological procedures from taking field samples to data analysis (i.e., crossdating, chronology development), and to provide examples of the latest applications of dendrochronology in the tropics, varying from dendroclimatology to forest management. The workshop will also function as a platform to establish new scientific cooperation in the field of tropical dendrochronology and also to create networks of chronologies and thematic laboratories.
