Woods from a Tropical Forest Region (Peru) as Climate Indicators and Development of a Preliminary Model for Reconstructing Climates Based on Fossil Wood

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Abstract ATM-9707899 Woodcock, Deborah University of Hawaii Title: Woods from A Tropical Forest Region (Peru) as Climate Indicators and Development of a Preliminary Model for Reconstructing Climates Based on Fossil Wood Fossil wood has a high potential to yield information about past climates and may prove to be particularly important as a record of climates in continental interiors where few other types of plant remains are found. Fossil wood can also provide environment information independent of leaf physiognomy and other climate indicators; and maybe an important source of information about past precipitation variability. Climate interpretations are hindered, however, by our limited understanding of the way in which climate affects wood structure. This award supports a project designed to examine woods from wet and montane tropical forest trees and to construct a database relating climate to wood characteristics. The project will systemize the characters used to describe wood, particularly vessel size and distribution, which have been shown to display climate sensitivity; and compare of woods from forest/climate types to data from elsewhere in the world to identify those characters most promising as climate indicators. This work will also develop a multivariate model expressing the wood:climate response that will permit detailed reconstruction of quantitative climate estimates to be carried out on fossil wood.