CENTRALIA COLLEGE TREE-RING LAB—Using tree-ring research and radiocarbon dating for undergraduate research projects and for community college research collaborations with high

school science teachers

Pat PringleCentralia College

Using tree rings for undergraduate (and other) research projects

• Tree rings—a source of accessible data• Equipment and tools needed for tree ring

studies• Simple procedures for analyzing tree rings• Examples of research by CC students• Research with high school science teachers via

the Murdock Partners in Science program• Wrap up: pluses and minuses

A short film intro…

• http://www.centralia.edu/academics/earthscience/index.html

• “From the core” …a film by Laura Griffiths about a tree-ring project done in her Weather and Climate class

Light rings and the volcano/sulfurous aerosols connection

AD 1601

Briffa etal, Nature, v. 393. 6/4/98 [proxy temp from low density tree rings]

Core from a 750-year old Douglas-fir at Cougar Rock Campground, Mount Rainier NP, ~3,500 ‘

Low density “light ring”

Subfossil snag in Hidden Lake outlet Zigzag River, 1781 outer

Mt. Hood: outer rings of two bark-bearing trees cross dated to A.D. 1781 (Pringle et al, 2002, 2010)

PDSI --Gedalov, Peterson, & Mantua, 2004.

Cross datingCross dating

Andrew Douglass

Markers are narrow rings, light rings (low density), etc

Light rings (low density): 1347, 1371, 1395, 1438, 1448, 1509, 1560, 1579? 1601, 1641, 1696, 1724, 1730, 1742, 1801, 1806, 1809, 1893

Simple methodologies• Evaluation via microscope and list method

(Yamaguchi, 1991); narrow, “light”, and other marker rings

• Skeleton plot using 2mm graph paper (LTRR has a great tutorial under “for educators”)

• Measuring rings using scanned images (grayscale) and free image analysis software (ImageJ…scan at 1600 dpi or better if possible)

• More complicated analysis tools: statistical software, isotopes, etc…see LDEO software

Selected information and data resources

http://web.utk.edu/~grissino/ The science of tree rings—this is a terrific gateway site developed by Henri Grissino Mayerhttp://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/paleo/treering.html NOAA tree-ring database…data in several formats

Tree-ring labs: LDEO, LTRR, HTRR, CCTRR, BTRRL at PSU

Archives of the tree-ring discussion forum

Bibliography of dendrochronology

NOAA global tree-ring database

Example skeleton plots on 2mm graph paper.

ScannersEpson expression 1680, ~ $800

Epson 10000XL, ~ $3,000Hardware resolution: 1600 x 3200 dpi Hardware resolution: 2400 x 4800

dpiScan area (max) 8.5" x 11.7" (216mm x 297mm) Scan area (max) 12.2" x 17.2"

Scanning software: Mac Image Capture or Vuescan (PC, but runs on a Mac)

Using ImageJ to measure rings

Subsidence or inundation drowning [no ls]Fault-dammed lakeLandslide-dammed lakeLava-dammed lakeBurial in lahar-, debris flow-, or flood-aggraded valleysBurial in landslide deposit, till, or dunesTimberline snags (subaerial preservation)

Spider Lake, SE Olympic Mountains – during 1992 drought; trees died ~ 1100 yr BP

Settings for preservation of subfossil trees

WA: Locations of subfossil trees (dots) with respect

to faults (lavender), volcanic hazard zones

(brown), and landslides (green)

Graphic by Pat Pringle

Glacier Lake

MP 126landslide

Knupenberg Lake

Packwood Lake

Bonnevillelandslide

Packwood

MountAdams

MountRainier

MountSt. Helens

Knupenberg Lake

MP 126landslide

Glacier Lake

Packwood Lake

Glacier Lake

Landslide deposit

SW WA Cascade Range landslides…student research focused on minimum age of Glacier Lake

Subfossil trees near Puget Lowland…student research focused on comparing tree rings w/ similar 14C dates

Intertidal area of Woodland Creek at Henderson Inlet near Olympia

Subfossil trees ~2300 yr B.P.

Pount Wilson ~2,300 yr B.P. stump intertidal zone

Above: Church Mtn rockslide ~2,300 yr B.P.

Pount Wilson ~2,300 yr B.P.

~2,300 yr B.P. sites in and near Puget Lowland

An increment borer is used by Colleen to take a core sample of the tree. At Glacier Lake we wanted to assess the age of the oldest trees atop the landslide to help estimate a minimum age.

Christina and Colleen preparing to extract a core from an increment borer

Gluing the core down.

Sanding the core—finishing with 2000-grit sandpaper for a fine polish.

Visual examination of the rings with a stereo microscope

Centralia College students at the poster session of the Northwest Scientific Association Annual Meeting, Portland State Univ., March 2013

Christina Williams (top center) discusses the poster with Megan Walsh and Serrafina Ferri of Central WA Univ.

Right: Colleen Suter talks with Katie Glew, 2011–2013 President of the Northwest Scientific Assoc. at her poster.

2nd Annual South Sound Undergraduate Geoscience Research Conference, Univ. of Puget Sound, April 19, 2013

Colleen discusses her poster with Kena Fox-Dobbs of UPS while Michelle Kearns looks on.

Fame and fortune—Being interviewed for the Alumni Newsletter by Ed Riley

Above: 1995 Emerald Downs racetrack excavation at Auburn.

-subfossil trees buried by andesitic sand. Stump dated at 1,080 yr B.P.

Below: andesitic sandat Port of Seattle

New project: Buried forests of the Duwamish and Puyallup

River valleys

Eruption, earthquake(s), buried trees, and the mythology of the Puget Lowland ~1100 yr B.P.—Can tree-rings shed light on the nature and timing of geologic events and place-specific stories? Do buried trees at Fife correlate with those at Auburn?How the whales reached the sea —IN, Arthur C. Ballard, the Mythology of Southern Puget Sound

Right, Michelle Kearns evaluates rings of subfossil trees from Fife and Auburn, ~1,100 yr B.P. in age.

Tree rings, the plus and minus side

• Plus: students get it; wide applications, data attainable online or locally, relevant to ongoing Earth changes of concern

• Minus: some tools (e.g. borers) costly and delicate; work can be time consuming and labor intensive

M.J. Murdock Partners in Science

• 2002: Russ Weaver, Heritage High School: Use of dendrochronology to date and better understand the Bonneville landslide, Columbia River Gorge, Washington

• 2006: Jo Martens, Centralia HS: Use of Radiocarbon Dating and Dendrochronology to Investigate a Submerged Forest in Eld Inlet, Washington

• 2011: Chris Hedeen, Oregon City HS: Assessing the age of the ghost forest: evidence for the 1781 Mount Hood eruption in the White River basin

Partnering in research with high school Science Teachers, my research partners are listed below

Right: looking west at the ghost forest along the upper east rim of the White River canyon from Timberline Lodge parking area; Below: USGS hazards map

Partners in Science Project: evaluating the ghost forest of Whitebark Pines at Mount Hood volcano

• Pringle, Patrick T.; Williams, Christina A., 2013, What geologic event(s) killed the circa 2,300 yr B.P. submerged or buried subfossil trees at multiple sites in and near the Puget Lowland, Washington USA? [abstract]: Northwest Scientific Association, Annual Meeting, 84th, 69–70. [Accessed May 21, 2013 at http://www.northwestscience.org/Default.aspx?pageId=1578186 ; poster accessed at http://www.centralia.edu/academics/earthscience/pubs/pringle_williams_poster_2300_ybp_trees_nwsa_2013.pdf]

• Suter, Colleen; Pringle, Patrick Patrick T.; Schuster, Robert L., 2013, New environmental and radiocarbon evidence for the ages of two Holocene landslide-dammed lakes in the southern Washington Cascade Range, USA [abstract]: Northwest Scientific Association, Annual Meeting, 84th, p. 78–79. [Accessed May 21, 2013 at http://www.northwestscience.org/Default.aspx?pageId=1578186 ; poster accessed at http://www.centralia.edu/academics/earthscience/pubs/suter_pringle_glacierlake_nwsa_2013.pdf ]

Riding the trolley in Portland at the NWSA meeting 2013