Carefully read the lab instructions that are attached as a PDF and refer to the tutorial video as well. The tree cores being analyzed are also attached below as a different PDF. The Spreadsheet that will be used to make the charts is also attached below.
Requirements: 600 words
Lab 1: Dendroclimatology Fall 2023 Introduction: A diagram showing two cores from three trees is posted on Canvas. These trees are Picea (Pine) and are known to be responsive to climate change. The cores were collected in June 2000 from the sand ridge running through the USF eco-area just north of Fletcher. The goal of this project is to ascertain what climate information can be obtained from these trees. Therefore, you will construct a master chronology of ring widths and compare that data to climate data for Tampa. Please watch the video tutorial for the lab and complete the following tasks. Complete a 600-word write-up answering the following questions and copy-paste the two Excel plots (labeled with titles and correct units) on a Word docx. file. Your document should include answers to the questions below, as well as the two excel plots (instructions below). DO NOT INCLUDE THE EXCEL SPREADSHEET. Tasks: 1. Measure the ring widths for the three cores starting with the left side of the dark band and ending at the left side of the next dark band. Each ring consists of one dark and one light band. Distances will be in the range of about 1-7 millimeters, and each core sample will have ~50 measurements. Begin this process at the line on the left side of the core. The first year you will be measuring the ring width is 1999. The blue arrows indicate a decade to help you stay on track. So starting from the left, the first blue line is 1990, second blue line is 1980, third is 1970, fourth is 1960, and fifth is 1950. Think of it this way, you extracted the core from a Pine tree at USF in 2000, so what you are looking at is how much the tree has grown since 1950 (where the black line on the right is). So basically, you are counting the tree rings backwards in time to see how it has grown over the five decades. One year is equal to a dark band and a white band (pause the tutorial video and see how they count the rings). The dark band indicates tree growth during the autumn and winter months in a year, and the white band indicates the tree growth during the spring and summer months in a year. So together one dark band and one white band equals to how much the tree has grown in one year. Use millimeters to do these measurements. You may need to estimate the fractions of millimeters but do so to only one decimal place – do the best you can. Enter these values into your excel table that contains Tampa climate data. 2. Using the calculations already in the excel sheet, average the ring widths for each tree corresponding to the year interval. Then average the ring widths for each tree to create one master chronology. Equations are already within the spreadsheet that will do this for you, so once you put in the data from your measurements, the calculations will occur automatically. 3. A) Graph the “Ring-Width vs. Temperature” and “Ring-Width vs. Precipitation” using x-y plots in Microsoft Excel. Do not forget to add axis titles and correct units. Distances are all millimeters and temperatures are Celsius.
B) Correlate the master chronology of ring widths to Tampa’s mean annual temperature and total annual precipitation. This means putting in the trend lines. See the instructions below. C) Examine the x-y plots of “Ring-width vs Temperature” and “Ring-width vs Precipitation”. How to graph: To create a plot, first, highlight the two datasets you wish to plot against each other. Highlight only the data and not the titles or entire columns. Then select “insert’ from the toolbars at the top of the screen, click on “scatter’ and select the top-left option. To add the trendline, right-click on the data points and a box will appear on your screen. When you select “add trendline”, another box will appear that has different trendline options. “Linear” is already the default option so simply click “close” and the trendline will appear on your graph. If the graph is highlighted (simply click on the graph), you will see “chart tools” at the top of the screen. By selecting “layout” you will see “axis titles” which will allow you to add titles to each axis of the graph. (Make sure to add both axes titles) ^THIS GRAPH IS AN EXAMPLE! Yours will have more data points and your trend line direction might differ, but it should be a similar structure. If you have multiple trend lines, lines connecting your data points, etc. then you have done it wrong. You will have one graph for precipitation and one for temperature. Edit the axes so that you don’t have large blank areas – for example, you do not need to start axes at zero if the lowest number is 500. As instructed below, you will copy and paste these two plots in the lab report. Answer the following questions: (20 points) 1. Define the difference between dendrochronology and dendroclimatology? Feel free to use the web but remember to use your own words and cite sources even if paraphrased. (2 points) 6 5 Annual Total Precipitation (mm) Ring width (mm)
2. What type of climate data can be attained from dendroclimatology? Refer to the textbook or search the web. Hint: it is not just average annual temperature or average annual rainfall. AGAIN, CITE SOURCES AND USE YOUR OWN WORDS (2 points) 3. Why is it important to use more than one core per tree and more than one tree per area? (1 point) 4. a) Provide your two Excel plots: (5 points) An example of the “Ring widths vs. Annual Total Precipitation” is provided above. Note the axis labels and units. By the way, this graph (plot) does not show a very good relationship between rainfall and tree ring widths. The data in your plot will be different, but it the layout of the graph should be similar (i.e., width vs total precipitation, not width and precipitation with dates across the bottom). b) What correlation (done for you in Excel spreadsheet) if any, do you find between the tree ring widths and the climate data? This is the information you get from the correlation. (4 points) 5. If you find a relationship (correlation), explain why it exists. If you do not find one, explain why. Answer for each graph. (3 points) 6. Now that you have some experience with this technique and the information it can provide. Critically evaluate, what are the strengths and weaknesses of dendroclimatology? (3 points)
Tree 1Tree 2Tree 3False ring1999 Arrows indicate every ten years. This is to help you stay on track chronologically.
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