The
11th Annual North American Dendroecological Fieldweek was held 12th to 19th
August, 2001, in conjunction with the Departamento Forestal of the in Saltillo, Coahuila,
Mexico. This was our first Fieldweek in Mexico and we were very pleased
to have the support of the Department and the University for the event.
We especially thank Eladio Cornejo-Oviedo, professor in the Departamento
Forestal, for his local organization of the week.
The 11th Fieldweek was a truly
international event, with final reports from research groups presented
at the end of the week in both Spanish and English. Our fifty participants
were from Canada, the United States, and Mexico. As in past Fieldweeks,
this year's week was a program of instruction and applied research that
used dendrochronological methods to answer practical ecological and climatological
questions in a field and laboratory setting. Please see the Fieldweek's
for more information about
the week and locations and projects of past Fieldweeks.
Group
Projects Research projects were led
by:
Sara Cecilia Diaz Castro,
Centro de Investigaciones Biologicas del Noroeste, La Paz
Peter Fulé, Ecological
Restoration Institute, Northern Arizona University, Flagstaff
Margot Kaye, NOAA National
Geophysical Data Center, Boulder, Colorado
David Stahle, Tree-Ring
Laboratory, University of Arkansas, Fayetteville
Paul Sheppard, Laboratory
of Tree-Ring Research, University of Arizona, Tucson
Captions for photos on the
left along with other photos from the week are on this
page.
Location
is located at 1600 m at the north end of the Sierra Madre Oriental of northeastern
Mexico. Mountains around Saltillo are home to many species of trees
useful for dendrochronological studies, including conifers such as Douglas-fir
(Pseudotsuga menziesii), Picea mexicana, and several of those wonderful
species of Mexican pines (Pinus sp.). Groups this year looked
at both Pinus ayacuhuite and P. rubis. In terms of
the ecology of the area, most of the mountains trend east to west and rise
between 1,500 meters up to 3,300 meters above sea level. The combination
of direction and elevation change provides a strong gradient of vegetation
types along with the aspect effect. The northern aspect is humid
and cool and, in contrast, the southern aspect is dry and hot.
Non-local participants stayed
at the in Saltillo.
The Hotel was originally built in 1834 and was a delight; we highly recommend
it if you are looking for a place to stay in Saltillo!
We were extremely fortunate
to receive financial or in-kind support from a number of organizations,
and we would like to thank them for their generous use of facilities, funding
for student travel and expenses, and funding for travel for group leaders
and organizers. We especially thank Brian Luckman and the Inter-American
Institute for providing support for bringing in Mexican students for the
week, Ed Cook of the Tree-Ring Laboratory at Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory
and Linda Joyce of the US Forest Service Rocky Mountain Research Station
for providing grants to support travel expenses of our group leaders, and,
last but certainly not least, our local organizers, Eladio Cornejo-Oviedo
of the Departamento Forestal of the Universidad Autónoma
Agraria "Antonio Narro" and Jose Villanueva-Díaz of
INIFAP in Torreon.
If you
have questions about this or future Dendroecological Fieldweeks,
please contact
Peter
Brown, Director
North American Dendroecological
Fieldweek
2901 Moore Lane, Ft. Collins,
CO 80526 USA
Phone and Fax: 970.229.9557
