Two years of the African Dendrochronology Field School: progress and prospects

Keywords: dendrochronology, biogeography, paleoenvironmental change, Africa, tropical
Abstract Type: Poster Abstract

Abstract

Despite recent progress in dendrochronological research in Africa, it is still the least-sampled continent in the world. Sub-Saharan Africa is particularly underrepresented despite its extreme importance in climate change impacts on human populations, and tropical forests and woodlands. Faculty at Copperbelt University, in collaboration with several international researchers organized the first African Dendrochronology Fieldschool in Zambia in 2021 (24 participants from seven countries) then a second fieldschool in 2022 (29 participants from six countries). Participants represented Belgium, Colombia, Cameroon, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ghana, Namibia, Peru, South Africa, USA, and Zambia. Our goals are to identify the distribution of species with reliable annual ring formation, collect networks of chronologies from long-lived species (> 200 years) for climate reconstruction and analysis of ITCZ fluctuations, conduct stand age-structure analyses, and quantify wood anatomical characteristics to provide a more mechanistic assessment of climate-growth relationships, all with an overarching emphasis on building local capacity for sustainable dendrochronological research in sub-Saharan Africa. We have developed well-replicated chronologies from Julbernardia and Brachystegia species, with trees up to 160 years and interseries correlations of ~0.5, and a multi-species chronology with 13 Miombo woodland species. The fieldschool will return to Zambia in 2023, then move to other countries including Democratic Republic of the Congo and Ghana. Our future work will focus on increasing the spatial and temporal coverage of chronologies, combined with quantitative wood anatomy, bomb-spike dating, blue intensity measurements, and stable isotopes to contribute to a better understanding of sub-Saharan Africa and the broader Southern Hemisphere.