Had a great time last week with Matt Meko collecting tree-ring samples in Illinois from sites sampled by D. Duvick in 1980. We were joined at Ferne Clyffe St. Park by Justin Maxwell and his crew and and Kankakee St. Park and Starved Rock St. Park by Emma Bialecki (@emmabialecki). We saw some great old growth oak forest though there was a lot of invasive species in some areas. The highlight of the trip for me was sampling at Starved […]
In addition to sampling live trees, we were able to find a few dead standing snags and downed logs to sample. Hopefully these will help us get farther back in time than the living trees. For more pics see https://plus.google.com/+MatthewTherrell/posts/1yHufupf55b
Had a “great” trip to the WRNWR to sample old overcup oak (Quercus lyrata) along Scrubgrass Bayou, and by great I mean we didn’t perish though I thought we might at times given the lightning and terrible heat, insects, and noxious plants. Matt Meko is shown coring a nice mature overcup. For more pics see https://plus.google.com/+MatthewTherrell/posts/1yHufupf55b
If you are into old plantation houses Lakeport Plantation in eastern Arkansas is one of the finest restored examples in that state. A few years ago Dave Stahle and I used tree-rings to date the construction of the main house. It was built almost entirely of bald cypress, and nearly every log was cut in 1858. Check out their website . For more pics see: Lakeport Plantation
The mfecane is thought to be a massive upheaval and devastation of Nguni tribal chiefdoms in the second decade of the 19th century in what is now KwaZulu-Natal and the Eastern Cape of South Africa. We show that pervasive cycles of drought and cold periods in southern Africa are significantly amplified and extended by volcanic eruptions and that, in particular, the eruption of Tambora in 1815 triggered a prolonged and extreme climatic event which bears all of the characteristics ascribed […]