Paul Szejner Conference Summary

Paul Szejner Conference Summary

    
 

Paul Szejner
Ph.D. Candidate

Global Change Minor

 Conference Summary
Third American Dendrochronological Conference (AmeriDendro 2016)
Mendoza, Argentina
March 28 – April 1, 2016

This conference took place in Mendoza Argentina March 28 - April 1, 2016. More than 200 abstracts submitted for oral and poster presentations, 2 workshops, 3 symposia and 3 midweek field trips were included in the AmeriDendro 2016.

I had the chance to meet with several researchers that I was looking forward to meet, from many countries and had the opportunity to exchange interesting ideas regarding my current Project and also new ideas that can be addressed in the near future.

Also I had the honor of been invited to Helmholtz Centre in Potsdam Germany, at the German Research Centre for Geosciences (GFZ ). Where Dr. Gerhard Helle, a senior scientist from the GFZ, extended me an offer to make an academic and research visit to their facilities between June and July 2016. The objective of this visit is to make a public talk about my research (see abstract) and also to learn and compare different techniques regarding stable isotope analysis in Carbon and Oxygen in wood cellulose.

During the talk I gave during the conference with the title “Latitudinal Gradients in Tree-Ring Stable Carbon and Oxygen Isotopes Reveal Differential Climate Influences of the North American Monsoon System” in the Session of Stable isotopes in tree rings I talked about these three main points:

  1. Significant regional differences in δ13C and δ18O from earlywood and latewood were observed, which reflect a gradient in seasonal monsoon development.
  2. Tree Water Use Efficiency inferred from latewood δ13C exhibited greater sensitivity to moisture variation near the North limit of the monsoon system.
  3. Summer air humidity has a significant latitudinal influence on the relative δ13C and δ18O values in cellulose of earlywood and latewood.

It is very important also to address the important feedback I had after the talk. This feedback was very important and helpful in order to improve one manuscript that have submitted after adding most of the feedback from the conference.