Ketchikan to Klawock

Guest Bloggers: Mihalis Protopapadakis and Amanda Flory

This year the College of Wooster Tree Ring Lab flew to Ketchikan for our 2024 Alaska trip. July 6th and 7th were spent in Ketchikan, where we collected samples from Deer Mountain after a rigorous hike. On July 8th we took a ferry to Prince of Wales Island, where we collaborated with Alaska Youth Stewards in the city of Klawock to create a new tree-ring record of the region. While in Klawock, we had the opportunity to bond with the AYS team and explore the local Tlingit culture.

The city of Ketchikan on a rare sunny day.

The Wooster team in front of a Tlingit totem pole.

The view from halfway up Deer Mountain.

Dr. Wiles riding the saddleback of two cedars.

The Wooster team hard at work.

Sun-rays peeking through remnants of possible staurolite crystals in the phyllite bedrock.

The Deer Mountain tree-ring data up to 1998. The chronology highlights the volcanic eruptions of the 1690s and 1809, extending the tail-end of the Little Ice Age. The team collected samples to update the record with the last 25 years.

Kite surfer catching the waves of the ferry to Prince of Wales island.

Meeting the AYS team and other collaborators in Klawock.

The team

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Alaska Collaboration, Ongoing and Future Projects

In addition to the summer work described by Lilly Hinkley and Tyrell Cooper, the Wooster Tree Ring Lab is collaborating projects with (1) The Tree Ring Lab of the Johannes Gutenberg-University in Mainz, Germany. This work is part of a project called Monostar (Modelling Non-Stationary Tree growth Responses to global warming) and (2) The University of Alaska – Fairbanks funded by the National Science Foundation, which involves developing long tree-ring records from along the Gulf of Alaska. This post describes some of the sampling aspects of these projects this past summer.
First MONOSTAR sampling: We started in Juneau – here (below, left to right) is Nick Wiesenberg (Wooster), Philipp Romer (Mainz), and Davide Frigo (University of Padova, Italy).

The first tree-ring site was above the Mendenhall Glacier at the East Glacier Site. MONOSTAR sampling is being done across the Northern Hemisphere to determine the whys, hows, wheres and whens of changing tree growth with changing climate. The trees in the background are mountain hemlock with a few Sitka spruce. This is close to a yellow cedar site that we sampled some years ago.

Philipp and Davide with Mendenhall Glacier in the background. 
The next stop was Glacier Bay where we flew to Gustavus. The

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Coring Trees and Flying over Seas, Hoonah, Alaska 2023

Guest Bloggers: Lilly Hinkley and Tyrell Cooper
Tyrell, Lilly, Nick and Dr. Wiles of Wooster’s Tree Ring Lab (WTRL) were in Juneau and Hoonah, Alaska working in collaboration with the Alaskan Youth Stewards (AYS) in order to extend our tree ring chronologies. Once we collect the tree cores, the WTRL group will head back to The College of Wooster to prep and measure the cores and do a climatic analysis on them to try and connect the data with some of the Tlingit oral histories we learned about during our time. 

Nick, Tyrell and Lilly at the Mendenhall Glacier ice margin.
Day 1
Tyrell and Lilly safely landed in Juneau. We fueled up and then went on a short walk around Mendenhall Glacier Lake where we saw a triple sun dog – a sign of good luck as we embarked on our journey in Alaska.
We met up with a fellow dendrochronologist, Markus Stoffel (left), along with his family who are from Switzerland. We also met up with another colleague, Ben Gaglioti (second from left) who works as a researcher at University of Alaska Fairbanks. Ben joined us while we were in Hoonah as well.
 
Lilly and Tyrell in front of Nugget Falls. Which pours from

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Alaska Day 5 – Juneau

There are two legs to the project this summer. Lilly and Fred are headed back to the Wooster Tree Ring Lab with samples from Kake and Jacob and Jack have arrived. Jack, Jacob, Nick and I will now travel to Glacier Bay for 10 days of sampling ancient forests. As a warmup, the group hiked to Mendenhall Glacier. The glacier is rapidly retreating but we are still able to find solid ice to take the team photo.

The hike to the glacier is great and the day was perfect.
Mendenhall Glacier from the forefield.

Fred found some ancient stumps and logs likely dating back to about 2.5 ka, the forests continue to be unearthed with the ice recession.

The West Mendenhall Trail has a variety of streams and falls.

Across the glacial lake is Nugget Falls and part of the group poses next to this popular stop.

The group getting organized and enjoying the katabatic breeze.
 

After all it was the 4th of July.

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Reflecting on the Earth Sciences Department’s Community Climate Change (CCC) Project

Editor’s note: The following is by Caitlyn Denes (’23).
“The Community Climate Change Project sought to document the changes in climate in Wooster, Ohio and surrounding communities. Through the collection, analysis, and interpretation of climatological data, we summarized our findings and developed recommendations to improve the resiliency of the community in the face of climate change. Having served a wide variety of local clients, we are hopeful that our findings will educate community members and foster strong connections with community partners.”
When a group of rising sophomores entered Scovel 116 on May 16th, I do not think they realized how much they would grow as students, researchers, and as people. Tasked with researching the dynamic interactions between climate variability and the local community, the CCC Team had their work cut out for them from the beginning of their AMRE project. As a peer advisor to the work that was completed, I watched our group come together to form an effective, successful, dynamic research team in just six weeks. Supervised by Dr. Pollock and Dr. Wiles, our team encountered some great experiences. It is impossible to cram six weeks of research and field experience into just one post, so here are just some

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