Developing long-term climate records from high-altitude ecosystems of the Colombian Central Cordillera

Lead PI: Dr. Nicole K. Davi

Unit Affiliation: Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory (LDEO)

Unknown start date - Ongoing
Active
South America ; Colombia
Project Type: Research

DESCRIPTION: The researchers worked collaboratively with Colombian scientists at EAFIT University’s Department of Earth Sciences and the Universidad EIA in order to identify research sites where annual rings are prevalent in local tree species and to develop tree-ring chronologies using novel low-cost methods that rely on high resolutions scans of tree-core samples. In addition to contributing an extended understanding of climate variation in this region, tree-ring chronologies from Colombian Polylepis trees could also provide insights into how forests are responding to climate change, which can inform the evolution of the country’s forest management policies. These records could also provide a long-term context to understand hydrological cycles, and can be used to study large-scale atmospheric/oceanic effects of El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO) and the Pacific Decadal Oscillations (PDO), which significantly impact the South American summer monsoon.