Preview
Faculty Mentor
David Barclay
Creation Date
5-2025
Description
Tree ring chronologies are a useful tool for analyzing past changes in environmental stress. This study utilizes data from 33 Sitka spruce (Picea sitchensis) trees growing at 350 meters elevation in the Chaix Hills of southern Alaska to reconstruct movement of the nearby Icy Bay Glacier during the nineteenth century. Tree rings were measured and cross-dated to ensure that all rings were in their correct year of growth. The resulting tree-ring chronology contains 10,192 rings and spans 1708 to 1994. These data are now being analyzed for unusually wide or narrow rings, resin ducts, reaction wood, or other growth anomalies to determine proximity to the glacier. Results of this study will contribute to a refined timeline of the glacial margin’s arrival upon and recession from the growth location of the spruce trees.
Keywords
Environmental Geoscience, Icy Bay Glacier, Alaska, tree ring chronologies, sitka spruce