Establishment of a Tree-Ring Analysis Laboratory for Utilization in Climatologic and Sedimentologic Investigations

树木年代学(对木本植物生长年轮的时间分析)已成为一个重要的研究领域，其应用范围涵盖地理学、生物学、水文学、气候学、生态学、地貌学及相关科学。通过分析生长轮的宽度和条件，科学家获得了有关植物生长以及促进或抑制生长的条件的有价值的信息。树的年代学研究使科学家能够推断出历史条件，最早可以追溯到获取生长轮的植物存活的时间，在特殊情况下已经有数千年了。这笔赠款将支持在蒙大拿州立大学建立一个树轮分析实验室。这个实验室将包含收集、准备和分析木本植物生长轮所需的设备，并将作为气候和沉积学研究的一个组成部分。实验室现场正在进行的一项主要研究项目涉及使用树状年代学来重建落基山脉北部地区上、下林线过去的温度、降水和气团模式。这项工作将在目前关于该区域古环境条件的最少量数据的基础上增加大量信息，并将提供有关最近环境变化和这种变化的后果的知识。正在进行的第二个项目涉及确定落基山脉北部现代冲积扇上的高降水事件产生泥石流的频率。对高降水事件引起的泥石流的沉积学和频率的分析将提供有关温带、半干旱冲积扇中泥石流的数量和时间的广泛信息。泥石流与当地气候变化模式的相关性也有助于评估气候对侵蚀的影响程度。这些结果还将有助于改进通常用于解释冲积扇地层记录中的沉积的模型。美国现有的年轮分析实验室寥寥无几。在蒙大拿州立大学建立这样一个实验室，将有助于以廉价和及时的方式获取树种年代学数据，这在目前是不可能的。该实验室将为正在进行的两项主要的古气候学和沉积学调查提供数据，并为该研究所和其他地方的学者计划的一些未来项目提供数据。这些研究项目将增加我们对气候波动和地球表面过程的时间意义的理解。

Dendrochronology (the temporal analysis of growth rings in woody plants) has become an important field of research with many applications spanning geography, biology, hydrology, climatology, ecology, geomorphology, and related sciences. By analyzing the width and condition of growth rings, scientists gain valuable information about plant growth and the conditions that enhance or inhibit growth. Dendrochronological studies have permitted scientists to infer historic conditions as far back in time as the plants from which growth rings are taken have lived, which has been thousands of years under special circumstances. The grant will support establishment of a tree- ring analysis laboratory at Montana State University. This lab will contain equipment necessary for collection, preparation, and analysis of woody plant growth-rings, and it will be used as an integral component for climatic and sedimentologic research. One of the major research projects underway at the laboratory site involves the use of dendrochronology to reconstruct past temperature, precipitation, and air mass patterns at both upper and lower timberlines in a region of the northern Rocky Mountains. This work will add a substantial body of information to the minimal amount of data currently available on the paleo-environmental conditions of that region, and it will provide knowledge of recent environmental change and the consequences of that change. The second ongoing project involves determination of the frequency of debris flows generated by high-precipitation events on modern alluvial fans in the northern Rocky Mountains. Analysis of the sedimentology and frequency of debris flows caused by high- precipitation events will provide extensive information about the volume and timing of debris flows in temperate, semi-arid alluvial fans. Correlation of debris flows with local patterns of climatic variation can also help to evaluate the degree to which climate influences erosion. These results will also contribute toward refinement of models commonly applied to interpret deposits in the stratigraphic record of alluvial fans. There are few existing tree-ring analysis laboratories in the United States. The establishment of such a laboratory at Montana State University will facilitate the acquisition of dendrochronologic data in an inexpensive and timely manner not now possible. This lab will provide data for two major ongoing paleoclimatologic and sedimentologic investigations and for a number of future projects planned by scholars at that institution and elsewhere. These research projects will increase our understanding of the temporal significance of climatic fluctuations and earth surface processes.