Old-growth ponderosa pine in the Monument Canyon Research Natural Area, New Mexico.
Rio de las Vacas in the west Jemez Mountains, New Mexico.
A managed fire burning in the Gila Wilderness, New Mexico.
Spring green quaking aspen in Oat Canyon, New Mexico, home to the endangered Jemez Mountains salamander.
Microscopic view of tree rings from a ponderosa pine in northern New Mexico
Our tree-ring lab is a key component of an interdisciplinary ecological research program that focuses on the effects of climate variability and human land use on forest ecology, fire ecology, and ecohydrology.
We were not the first dendrochronology lab in New Mexico, where there is a long history of tree-ring research. Abundant old trees and remnant wood in the region offer countless opportunities to understand interactions between climate variability, a rich human history, and ecosystem processes over centuries to millennia.
We are currently working on a diverse range of projects involving tree rings, many of which are applied and co-produced to inform resource management (for example, forest, fire, and watershed management in the Santa Fe Fireshed). We use dendrochronology as a primary research tool, which involves dendrochronological cross-dating of tree-ring samples to determine the year of growth. We work with tree-ring fire scars and tree ring-width data.
Current research projects include:
- Developing the North American Tree-Ring Fire-Scar Network (NAFSN)
- Synthesis of the new North American tree-ring fire-scar network: using past and present fire-climate relationships to improve projections of future wildfire (USGS Powell Center for Synthesis project).
- Area burned reconstruction in the Jemez Mountains, NM using the largest mountain range fire-scar network in North America.
- Development of millennial-length, climate-sensitive tree ring width chronologies in northern NM.
- 400 years of human influence on fire regimes in the Rio Chama Valley, NM.
- Cottonwood decline and collapse in the middle Rio Grande Valley, NM.
- Tree-ring reconstruction of fire history in a megafire footprint: is a 500,000 acre fire large in a multi-century context?
- Area burned in a multi-century context in two southwestern wilderness areas.
- Tree-ring reconstruction of fire history in the Santa Fe Fireshed, NM.
- Cambial phenology (that is, timing of wood formation) of ponderosa pine: combining dendrobands (tree diameter measurements) and cellular analysis.
- Culturally modified trees in northern New Mexico and the Navajo Nation.
- Tree resilience to drought as measured by tree-ring growth in northern New Mexico
Research project descriptions
1. Synthesis of the new North American tree-ring fire-scar network: using past and present fire-climate relationships to improve projections of future wildfire
We were selected by the USGS John Wesley Powell Center for Synthesis to convene the North American Fire working group to synthesize the new North American Tree-Ring Fire Scar Network. In this project we will e) Define the geography of historical fire-climate relationships across North America, 2) Quantify the fire deficit in North America, 3) Develop a gridded continental fire history data set, and 4) Project future fire in North America.
2. Tree-ring reconstructions of fire history in the Santa Fe Fireshed
Working with a collaborative group of stakeholders, we are developing new fire history records from tree rings to inform forest and fire management decisions in critical watersheds in the southern Sangre de Cristo Mountains near Santa Fe, New Mexico. The watersheds provide many ecosystem services (for example, water supply for the City of Santa Fe), and high-severity fires threaten the ecological and social values of the forests. A long-standing science-management partnership in the region works to use science to guide local forest, fire, and watershed management.
3. Cambial phenology of ponderosa pine: combining dendrobands and cellular analysis
Seasonal increases in temperature and decreases in precipitation have increased drought stress among trees and forests of the southwestern United States. A more precise understanding of tree growth responses and vulnerabilities to climate change requires identifying climate and environmental drivers of tree growth at a seasonal or sub-seasonal scale. Xylogenesis – the study of wood formation – is a window into the timing of tree-ring formation on a cellular level. By collection microcores for trees on a weekly basis over the course of the growing season, the timings of tree-ring/cell formation can be estimated and linked to climate drivers. These analyses will identify potential triggers that may increase risks of future forest die-off. Project collaborators: Kiyomi Morino, University of Arizona; Kay Beeley, Bandelier National Monument.
4. The largest mountain-range fire-scar network in North America: fire regime reconstruction in the Jemez Mountains
Over 30 years of tree-ring fire history research in the Jemez Mountains, New Mexico has built the largest tree-ring fire-scar network for a single mountain range in North America (1,343 trees and 9,014 fire scars - and counting). We are expanding the network using a spatially systematic sampling approach with a main goal of reconstructing area burned since 1600 CE over a 300,000-acre area. These reconstructions will allow us to place recent “large” fires (for example, 150,000 acre Las Conchas fire) in a historical context and ultimately can inform long-term carbon fluxes related to fire and climate.
History of tree-rings in New Mexico
Florence Hawley Ellis was one of the first students of A.E. Douglass, the founder of dendrochronology, at the University of Arizona in the early 1900s. After finishing her Ph.D., she became a professor of Anthropology at the University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, where she had a long and distinguished career (1934 – 1971). She contributed important work on the history of Chetro Ketl at Chaco Canyon, using newly developed dendroarchaeological techniques to determine the exact year structures were built over 1000 years ago. In addition, she was one of the pioneers of dendrochronology in the eastern U.S., where she tested whether new tree species were suitable for tree-ring dating and dendroarchaeological analyses of cultural sites of eastern Native American cultures.
Read more about the Florence Hawley Ellis Papers
Below are other science projects associated with this project.
The New Mexico Landscapes Field Station
New Mexico Landscapes Field Station: Forest Ecosystem Research
New Mexico Landscapes Field Station: Fire Research
Synthesis of the new North American tree-ring fire-scar network: using past and present fire-climate relationships to improve projections of future wildfire
Our tree-ring lab is a key component of an interdisciplinary ecological research program that focuses on the effects of climate variability and human land use on forest ecology, fire ecology, and ecohydrology.
We were not the first dendrochronology lab in New Mexico, where there is a long history of tree-ring research. Abundant old trees and remnant wood in the region offer countless opportunities to understand interactions between climate variability, a rich human history, and ecosystem processes over centuries to millennia.
We are currently working on a diverse range of projects involving tree rings, many of which are applied and co-produced to inform resource management (for example, forest, fire, and watershed management in the Santa Fe Fireshed). We use dendrochronology as a primary research tool, which involves dendrochronological cross-dating of tree-ring samples to determine the year of growth. We work with tree-ring fire scars and tree ring-width data.
Current research projects include:
- Developing the North American Tree-Ring Fire-Scar Network (NAFSN)
- Synthesis of the new North American tree-ring fire-scar network: using past and present fire-climate relationships to improve projections of future wildfire (USGS Powell Center for Synthesis project).
- Area burned reconstruction in the Jemez Mountains, NM using the largest mountain range fire-scar network in North America.
- Development of millennial-length, climate-sensitive tree ring width chronologies in northern NM.
- 400 years of human influence on fire regimes in the Rio Chama Valley, NM.
- Cottonwood decline and collapse in the middle Rio Grande Valley, NM.
- Tree-ring reconstruction of fire history in a megafire footprint: is a 500,000 acre fire large in a multi-century context?
- Area burned in a multi-century context in two southwestern wilderness areas.
- Tree-ring reconstruction of fire history in the Santa Fe Fireshed, NM.
- Cambial phenology (that is, timing of wood formation) of ponderosa pine: combining dendrobands (tree diameter measurements) and cellular analysis.
- Culturally modified trees in northern New Mexico and the Navajo Nation.
- Tree resilience to drought as measured by tree-ring growth in northern New Mexico
Research project descriptions
1. Synthesis of the new North American tree-ring fire-scar network: using past and present fire-climate relationships to improve projections of future wildfire
We were selected by the USGS John Wesley Powell Center for Synthesis to convene the North American Fire working group to synthesize the new North American Tree-Ring Fire Scar Network. In this project we will e) Define the geography of historical fire-climate relationships across North America, 2) Quantify the fire deficit in North America, 3) Develop a gridded continental fire history data set, and 4) Project future fire in North America.
2. Tree-ring reconstructions of fire history in the Santa Fe Fireshed
Working with a collaborative group of stakeholders, we are developing new fire history records from tree rings to inform forest and fire management decisions in critical watersheds in the southern Sangre de Cristo Mountains near Santa Fe, New Mexico. The watersheds provide many ecosystem services (for example, water supply for the City of Santa Fe), and high-severity fires threaten the ecological and social values of the forests. A long-standing science-management partnership in the region works to use science to guide local forest, fire, and watershed management.
3. Cambial phenology of ponderosa pine: combining dendrobands and cellular analysis
Seasonal increases in temperature and decreases in precipitation have increased drought stress among trees and forests of the southwestern United States. A more precise understanding of tree growth responses and vulnerabilities to climate change requires identifying climate and environmental drivers of tree growth at a seasonal or sub-seasonal scale. Xylogenesis – the study of wood formation – is a window into the timing of tree-ring formation on a cellular level. By collection microcores for trees on a weekly basis over the course of the growing season, the timings of tree-ring/cell formation can be estimated and linked to climate drivers. These analyses will identify potential triggers that may increase risks of future forest die-off. Project collaborators: Kiyomi Morino, University of Arizona; Kay Beeley, Bandelier National Monument.
4. The largest mountain-range fire-scar network in North America: fire regime reconstruction in the Jemez Mountains
Over 30 years of tree-ring fire history research in the Jemez Mountains, New Mexico has built the largest tree-ring fire-scar network for a single mountain range in North America (1,343 trees and 9,014 fire scars - and counting). We are expanding the network using a spatially systematic sampling approach with a main goal of reconstructing area burned since 1600 CE over a 300,000-acre area. These reconstructions will allow us to place recent “large” fires (for example, 150,000 acre Las Conchas fire) in a historical context and ultimately can inform long-term carbon fluxes related to fire and climate.
History of tree-rings in New Mexico
Florence Hawley Ellis was one of the first students of A.E. Douglass, the founder of dendrochronology, at the University of Arizona in the early 1900s. After finishing her Ph.D., she became a professor of Anthropology at the University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, where she had a long and distinguished career (1934 – 1971). She contributed important work on the history of Chetro Ketl at Chaco Canyon, using newly developed dendroarchaeological techniques to determine the exact year structures were built over 1000 years ago. In addition, she was one of the pioneers of dendrochronology in the eastern U.S., where she tested whether new tree species were suitable for tree-ring dating and dendroarchaeological analyses of cultural sites of eastern Native American cultures.
Read more about the Florence Hawley Ellis Papers
Below are other science projects associated with this project.