Laboratory for Dendrochronology

Aims

to reconstruct the temporal and spatial variability of the climate of the past utilizing multi-parameter tree ring analysis
to assess and verify the causes of climate change and its impact on woody plants

Tasks

quantitative analysis of the climate-signal transfer from atmosphere through soil and leaf into the wood of tree rings (Monitoring, calibration and verification of tree ring parameters vs. instrumental data)
to establish multi-centennial to millennium long time series of tree-ring parameters (ring width, cellstructure parameters, stable isotope ratios) for networks of sites from selected regions of the earth
comparative study of time series of climate proxies from different geo-archives (varved sediments, spelethemes, corals etc.)

Technical field equipment

Tip of an incrementborer, Suunto, Finland

Sharpening tools for increment borers, Grube, Eberswalde, Germany

Increment borers (5mm ∅, 30 to 80cm length) and accessories

Sample Preparation (coarse and fine preparation)

Band-saw

Trimming of wood segments and cores

Beltsander OPTI

Coarse preparation wood surfaces

Precision saw

A precision saw (Buehler Isomet 5000) was modified by our GFZ workshop for dissecting thin cross sections from wood cores or wood segments.

UV- Laser Microdissections Microscope (PALM MicroBeam, ZEISS, Germany)

UV- Laser Microdissections Microscope (LMD7000, LEICA, Germany)

WSL Sliding microtome

UV-Laser Microdissection Microscopes

For high resolution intra-annual investigations of tree rings variuos microtomes as well research microscopes with UV-laser dissection devices are being used. This allows to prepare, dissect and collect samples, e.g. tree-rings and parts thereof of micrometer size/thickness.

Tree-rings of >0.2mm width are being dissected utilizing binoculars (Nikon)

Dendrochronology (tree ring width measurement, dating and cross-dating)

calibrated optical scanner and WinDendro© analysis software

Wood Chemistry (Elemental analysis and extraction of wood constituents)

Dissection of tree rings with scalpell under binocular

Ultrasonic device for homogenisation of cellulose

Sonode in sample vial; ultrasonic Homogenisation device

homogenized and dried cellulose samples in Eppendorf vials — Homogenized and dried cellulose samples in Eppendorf vials

Wieloch, T.; Helle, G.; Heinrich, I.; Voigt, M.; Schyma, P. (2011): A novel device for batch-wise isolation of α-cellulose from small-amount wholewood samples. Dendrochronologia, 29, 2, 115-117.

Cellulose extraction

Ultrasonic Homogenisation of cellulose

Freeze drying devices

Extracted, homogenized cellulose

Weighing chamber

3 micro balances mounted on special tables are being used for weighing samples for Isotope Ratio Mass Spectrometry (IRMS)

Vacuum drying oven

2 Vacuum drying ovens are used to store cellulose samples and reference material for IRMS

Dendrohydrological and Dendroecological Monitoring

To-date we do have monitoring activities going on in:

NE-Germany, Müritz National Park
Mozambique (Gorongosa National Park)

Müritz National Park, NE-Germany, Old beech forest, October 2012

Müritz National Park, NE-Germany, Old beech forest in summer

Müritz National Park, NE-Germany, Beech canopy in autumn

Dendrohydrological monitoring in NE-Germany

Point dendrometer: out of reach for the elephants?

Small baobab tree equiped with dendrometers; Musina, South Africa

Circumference dendrometer on a branch of a baobab

phD-project of Franziska Slotta in cooperation with FU Berlin (Frank Riedel) and the German Archaeological Institute (DAI, Uwe Heußner), Berlin.

Quantitative wood anatomy and wood density determination

A focus is on utilizing a "Confocal Laser Scanning Microscope - CLSM", FV300 FLUOVIEW, Olympus.

Software:
Cell^B software
WinCELL Pro 2011a & XL Cell
WinDENDRO Density
Image-Pro Plus & ROXAS

References:
Liang, W., Heinrich, I., Simard, S., Helle, G., Dorado Liñán, I., Heinken, T. (2013): Climate signals derived from cell anatomy of Scots pine in NE Germany.Tree Physiology 33, 833–844. | doi:10.1016/j.dendro.2012.09.002

Liang, W.; Heinrich, I.; Helle, G.; Dorado Liñán, I.; Heinken, T. (2013): Applying CLSM to increment core surfaces for histometric analyses: A novel advance in quantitative wood anatomy. Dendrochronologia, 31, 2, 140-145. | doi:10.1093/treephys/tpt059

Stable isotope analyses of tree rings