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2011 Autumn | Climate Change, Natural Science & Restoration

Identifying and Analyzing Tree Mortality Patterns in Subalpine Fir Tree Species on the Olympic Peninsula

Student(s):

Wade Jones

Program or Department(s):

  • Program on the Environment
  • University of Washington

Site supervisor(s):

Karen Hutten

Partner(s):

  • School of Forest Resources

Faculty advisor(s):

Gregory Ettl, School of Forest Resources, University of Washington

For my capstone experience, I worked with another student in analyzing tree cores from several tree plots in the Olympic National Forest. We wanted to identify moments of drought for each plot to correlate tree mortality with drought conditions as well as possible Balsam Wooly Adelgid outbreaks. We used dendrochronology, the science of dating events of environmental change by using characteristic patterns of annual growth rings in timber to obtain drought patterns for each plot. As a result of our research, we found that drought predisposes trees for other stressors to take over and result in mortality.