Dendrochronology - Tree Ring Records of Climate Change

Dendrochronology is the formal term for tree-ring dating, the science that uses the growth rings of trees as a detailed record of climatic change in a region, as well as a way to approximate the date of construction for wooden objects of many types. Key Takeaways: Dendrochronology Dendrochronology, or tree-ring dating, is the study of growth rings in deciduous trees to identify absolute dates of wooden objects.  Tree rings are created by the tree as it grows in girth, and the width of a given tree ring is dependent on climate, so a stand of trees will all have a near-identical pattern of tree rings.The method was invented in the 1920s by astronomer Andrew Ellicott Douglass and archaeologist Clark Wissler.  Recent applications include tracking climate change, identifying pending slope collapses, finding American trees in World War I trench construction, and using chemical signatures in tropical trees to identify past temperature and precipitation.  Tree ring dating is also used to calibrate radiocarbon dates. As archaeological dating techniques go, dendrochronology is extremely precise: if the growth rings in a wooden object are preserved and can be tied into an existing chronology, researchers can determine the precise calendar year—and often season—the tree was cut down to make it. Because of that precision, dendrochronology is used to calibrate ​radiocarbon dating, by giving science a measure of the atmospheric conditions which are known to cause radiocarbon dates to vary. Radiocarbon dates which have been calibrated by comparison to dendrochronological records are designated by abbreviations such as cal BP, or calibrated years before the present. What are Tree Rings? Cross section of a tree illustrating the cambium layer. Lukaves / iStock / Getty Images Tree-ring dating works because a tree grows larger—not just height but gains girth—in measurable rings each year in its lifetime. The rings are the cambium layer, a ring of cells that lies between the wood and bark and from which new bark and wood cells originate; each year a new cambium is created leaving the previous one in place. How large the cambiums cells grow in each year, measured as the width of each ring, depends on temperature and moisture—how warm or cool, dry or wet each years seasons were. Environmental inputs into the cambium are primarily regional climatic variations, changes in temperature, aridity, and soil chemistry, which together are encoded as variations in the width of a particular ring, in the wood density or structure, and/or in the chemical composition of the cell walls. At its most basic, during dry years the cambiums cells are smaller and thus the layer is thinner than during wet years. Tree Species Matters Not all trees can be measured or used without additional analytical techniques: not all trees have cambiums that are created annually. In tropical regions, for example, annual growth rings are not systematically formed, or growth rings are not tied to years, or there are no rings at all. Evergreen cambiums are commonly irregular and not formed annually. Trees in arctic, sub-arctic and alpine regions respond differently depending on how old the tree is—older trees have reduced water efficiency which results in a reduced response to temperature changes. Invention of Dendrochronology Tree-ring dating was one of the first absolute dating methods developed for archaeology, and it was invented by astronomer Andrew Ellicott Douglass and archaeologist Clark Wissler in the first decades of the 20th century. Douglass was mostly interested in the history of climatic variations exhibited in tree rings; it was Wissler who suggested using the technique to identify when adobe pueblos of the American southwest were built, and their joint work culminated in research at the Ancestral Pueblo town of Showlow, near the modern town of Showlow, Arizona, in 1929. The Beam Expeditions Archaeologist Neil M. Judd is credited with convincing the National Geographic Society to establish the First Beam Expedition, in which log sections from occupied pueblos, mission churches and prehistoric ruins from the American southwest were collected and recorded alongside those from living ponderosa pine trees. The ring widths were matched and cross-dated, and by the 1920s, chronologies were built back nearly 600 years. The first ruin tied to a specific calendar date was Kawaikuh in the Jeddito area, built in the 15th century; charcoal from Kawaikuh was the first charcoal used in (the later) radiocarbon studies. In 1929, Showlow was being excavated by Lyndon L. Hargrave and Emil W. Haury, and dendrochronology conducted on Showlow eventuated the first single chronology for the southwest, extending over a period of over 1,200 years. The Laboratory of Tree-Ring Research was established by Douglass at the University of Arizona in 1937, and it is still conducting research today. Building a Sequence Over the past hundred years or so, tree ring sequences have been built for various species all over the world, with such long date strings as a 12,460-year sequence in central Europe completed on oak trees by the Hohenheim Laboratory, and an 8,700 year-long bristlecone pine sequence in California. Building a chronology of climate change in a region today was first simply a matter of matching overlapping tree ring patterns in older and older trees; but such efforts are no longer based solely on tree-ring widths. Features such as wood density, the elemental composition (called dendrochemistry) of its makeup, the anatomical features of the wood, and stable isotopes captured within its cells have been used in conjunction with traditional tree ring width analysis to study air pollution effects, the uptake of ozone, and changes in soil acidity over time. Medieval Là ¼beck In 2007, German wood scientist Dieter Eckstein described wooden artifacts and building rafters within the Medieval town of Là ¼beck, Germany, an excellent example of the myriad ways the technique can be used. Là ¼becks medieval history includes several events that are pertinent to the study of tree rings and forests, including laws passed in the late 12th and early 13th century establishing some basic sustainability rules, two devastating fires in 1251 and 1276, and a population crash between about 1340 and 1430 resulting from the Black Death. Construction booms at Là ¼beck are marked by the extensive use of younger trees, which signal demand outpacing the ability of the forests to recover; busts, such as after the Black Death decimated the population, are denoted by a long period of no construction at all, followed by the use of very old trees.In some of the wealthier houses, the rafters used during construction were cut down at different times, some spanning more than a year; most other houses have rafters cut down at the same time. Eckstein suggests that is because wood for the wealthier house was obtained at a timber market, where the trees would have been cut and stored until they could be sold; while less well-off house constructions were built just-in-time.Evidence of long-distance timber trade is seen in wood imported for pieces of art such as the Triumphal Cross and Screen at the St. Jacobi Cathedral. That was identified as having been constructed out of wood that had been specifically shipped in from 200-300-yea r-old trees from the Polish-Baltic forests, probably along established trade routes from Gdansk, Riga, or Konigsberg harbors. Tropical and Subtropical Environments Clà ¡udia Fontana and colleagues (2018) documented advances in filling a major gap in dendrochronological research in tropical and subtropical regions, because trees in those climates have either complex ring patterns or no visible tree rings at all.  That is an issue because because since global climate change is in progress, we need to understand the physical, chemical and biological processes that effeect terrestrial carbon levels is increasingly important. The tropic and subtropic regions of the world, such as the Brazilian Atlantic Forest of South America, store about 54% of the total biomass of the planet. The best results for standard dendrochronological research are with the evergreen Araucaria angustifolia (Paranà ¡ pine, Brazilian pine or candelabra tree), with a sequence established in the rainforest between 1790–2009 CE); preliminary studies (Nakai et al. 2018) have shown that there are chemical signals which trace precipitation and temperature changes, which m ay be leveraged for gaining more information.   The elliptical rings on this tree from Turkey show that the tree grew tilted on a slope for several years, the part facing the upslope identified by the narrowness of the ring in the right hand side of the image. Mehmet Gà ¶khan Bayhan / iStock / Getty Images A 2019 study (Wistuba and colleagues) found that tree rings can also warn of impending slope collapses. It turns out that trees that are tilted by landsliding record eccentric elliptical tree rings. The downslope parts of the rings grow wider than the upslope ones, and in studies carried out in Poland, Malgorzata Wistuba and colleagues found that those tilts are in evidence between three and fifteen years prior to catastrophic collapse. Other Applications It had long been known that three 9th century Viking period boat-grave mounds near Oslo, Norway (Gokstad, Oseberg, and Tune) had been broken into at some point in antiquity. The interlopers defaced the ships, damaged the grave goods and pulled out and dispersed the bones of the deceased. Fortunately for us, the looters left behind the tools they used to break into the mounds, wooden spades and stretchers (small handled platforms used to carry objects out of the tombs), which were analyzed using dendrochronology. Tying tree ring fragments in the tools to established chronologies, Bill and Daly (2012) discovered that all three of the mounds were opened and the grave goods damaged during the 10th century, likely as part of Harald Bluetooths campaign to convert Scandinavians to Christianity. Wang and Zhao used dendrochronology to look at the dates of one of the Silk Road routes used during the Qin-Han period called the Qinghai Route. To resolve conflicting evidence over when the route was abandoned, Wang and Zhao looked at wood remains from tombs along the route. Some historical sources had reported the Qinghai route was abandoned by the 6th century AD: dendrochronological analysis of 14 tombs along the route identified a continuing use through the late 8th century. A study by Kristof Haneca and colleagues (2018) described evidence for the importation of American timber to construct and maintain the 440 mi (700 km) long defensive line of World War I trenches along the western front. Selected Sources Bill, Jan, and Aoife Daly. The Plundering of the Ship Graves from Oseberg and Gokstad: An Example of Power Politics? Antiquity 86.333 (2012): 808–24. Print.Fontana, Clà ¡udia, et al. Dendrochronology and Climate in the Brazilian Atlantic Forest: Which Species, Where and How. Neotropical Biology and Conservation 13.4 (2018). Print.Haneca, Kristof, Sjoerd van Daalen, and Hans Beeckman. Timber for the Trenches: A New Perspective on Archaeological Wood from First World War Trenches in Flanders Fields. Antiquity 92.366 (2018): 1619–39. Print.Manning, Katie, et al. The Chronology of Culture: A Comparative Assessment of European Neolithic Dating Approaches. Antiquity 88.342 (2014): 1065–80. Print.Nakai, Wataru, et al. Sample Preparation of Ring-Less Tropical Trees for ÃŽ ´18O Measurement in Isotope Dendrochronology. Tropics 27.2 (2018): 49–58. Print.Turkon, Paula, et al. Applications of Dendrochronology in Northwestern Mexico. Latin American Antiquity 29.1 (2018 ): 102–21. Print.Wang, Shuzhi, and Xiuhai Zhao. Re-Evaluating the Silk Roads Qinghai Route Using Dendrochronology. Dendrochronologia 31.1 (2013): 34–40. Print.

Managing Diversity Essay - 1800 Words

Managing Diversity No two humans are alike. People are different not only in gender, culture, race, social and psychological characteristics but also in their perspectives and prejudices. Society had discriminated on these aspects for centuries. Women and minority groups were denied of their due rights. But not any more. Since 1960s, when federal legislation prohibited employment discrimination, minorities and female applicants have become the fastest-growing segment in the work force. Diversity makes the work-force heterogeneous. The work-force diversity used in the corporate world today is the varied characteristics of employees working in same organization. Despite the magnitude of the ethical, legal, economic, social, and political†¦show more content†¦Diversity can be broadly divided in two main types, e.g. superficial diversity (e.g. differences in gender, ethnicity, nationality) and deep-level diversity (e.g. differences in knowledge, skills and differences in values). Importance of su perficial diversity can be reduced by increased amounts of interaction between individuals of various sexes, ethnicity and nationality etc thereby increasing the importance of deep-level diversity . For an enterprise to become diverse, it has to concentrate on its internal workforce. A worst practice in diversity is by initiating a corporate diversity effort focused on customers and external public relations. It leads to false expectations. Focus of diversity initially should be on internal culture. A dedicated and motivated diverse workforce will automatically lead an organization to diverse society. There can be many factors that motivate organizations of all sizes to diversify their workforces. Legal requirement of non discrimination is a major cause but then there are few organizations which make their workforce diverse taking it as a social responsibility. The diversity may be adopted for economic payback, particularly through initiatives like welfare-to-work, thereby effectiv ely turning tax users into tax payers. Companies may be motivated towards diversity for many other reasons like resource imperative, or as a marketing strategy. It can also be used as a capacity buildingShow MoreRelatedEssay about Managing Diversity in the Workplace1449 Words   |  6 Pagesorganizations need diversity to become more creative and open to change. Maximizing and capitalizing on workplace diversity has become an important issue for management today (UCSF). Workplace diversity refers to having a variety of different types of people working together within a place of business. Employee gender, race, religion, sexual preference, physical appearance, family or marital status, education, culture, personality, or tenure establishes diversity in the workplace. 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But what does managing diversity actually mean, how does it translate into practice, and what does it matter? The following paper brie y debates the rhetoric of managing diversity and considers whether managing diversity is a distinct approachRead MoreManaging Diversity in the Workplace1043 Words   |  5 PagesManaging diverse employees in a multicultural environment proves challenging to managers; yet, increasing diversity in the workplace is very beneficial for an organization. Diverse employees will provide a wider array of talents and will relate better to varied customers. Because managers have more influence than rank-and-file employees, it is imperative that managers commit to diversity of the workforce. Dissimilarities among people due to differences in characteristics can erode companies. Firstly

Politics of Middle East

Question: Discuss about the Politics of Middle East. Answer: Introduction Life of the Islamic people varies greatly that from the people from the West. It has been considered that world of Islam was in the forefront of the civilizations. However, with the initiation of modernity, the Islamic culture and people were separated from the world. They were considered as less educated and even less civilized. This paper will discuss the nature of authoritarian regimes in Middle East and how it affects the private life of people. Middle Eastern Authoritarian Regimes The political regime of the Middle East is considered to be unstable and undemocratic. The political system can also be called as democracy deficit. Some of the countries in Middle East are considered to be democratic (Morocco, Kuwait and Lebanon), some are considered to be partially democratic (like Iraq and Egypt), while others are considered to have authoritarian regimes (Gumuscu, 2010). Authoritarian regime is also considered as a type of government, which has strong power and allow very limited political freedom. Such government puts many constraints on the political parties, interest groups and political institutions. For such government, legitimacy is mainly based on the emotions. The democracies also have limited freedom, regular elections and also have political parties, but the power mainly remains in the hands of the regimes. For example, Lebanon has the regular elections and also political parties but the political system remains constrained by sectarian affiliations and neopatrimonial clientalistic properties (Khondker, 2011). There are the dominant elites, who control the system of countries. The individual choices and gender roles are mainly affected by the role of class. The society is divided in the working class and elite class. The authoritarian regime is achieved when the elite groups hold all the power in the rising economy. The elite group work towards getting a political position to seek their own political agendas. The life of the people is affected, due to the imbalance. The life of the people is restricted mainly due to class identity. The abundance of the oil is in the hands of the elite and powerful people, which also impact the political outcomes. The image of the women is different in the Middle East then in the West. Women have faced many inequalities in the past that still affects her image in present. The past secular law in Iraq gave rise to the practice of pleasure marriages. Women were used for pleasure in the name of marriage (Lewis, 2003). Man used to get married to woman for few days, weeks or months just to satisfy their physical needs. These were the temporary marriages, which resulted in many STDs and illegitimate children. The religious interference deteriorated the quality of life of women and also challenged their rights. The legal rights of the women were less protected in the Islamic World. People were forced to live the life according to the rules of the authoritarian regimes. Thus, democratization is required in the Middle East. Democratization is the process of bringing transition in the political system by changing authoritarian regimes to democratic political system. It is very important that religious and state interfere in democratization, because religion is of great significant in the political system of Middle East and working in collaboration may bring significant changes. The religious groups in Iraq have also considered pleasure marriages as illegal. The secular law of Iraq also sup[ports the rights of women, thus religious and state interference in democratization seems to be important. Women are objectified in the Middle Eastern countries in comparison to West. The patriarchal structure of the society has resulted in the violence and victimization of women. There is a significant relationship between patriarchy and authoritarianism. The authoritarianism regimes has resulted in authoritarian family structure and had also increased violence against women. Obedience has served as the virtue that feeds the mechanism of authoritarianism (Ghanim, 2009). The pride and honor of the men is considered to be superior then life of women. This relationship between obedience and authoritarianism has also impacted the gender relationships. Authoritarianism has inflated the male ego, which in turn increases family violence against women (Mernissi, 2009). The generations of young people are challenging these restrictions, as women are now outraged. Thus, new legal law in Iraq and other places are providing some freedom to them. The young generation is marching against the restricti ons and invasion of their privacy. They are challenging the authority of the regimes and fighting against the taboos. Conclusion The society of the Middle East is the Islamic society. It has long, restricted people and also interfered with their normal rights. The gender differences are quite significant in the society. This essay demonstrated that what are the problems people are facing due to authoritarian regimes and what has been the impact on life of women. References Mernissi, F. (2009). Islam and democracy: Fear of the modern world. Basic books. Ghanim, D. (2009).Gender and violence in the Middle East. ABC-CLIO. Gumuscu, S. (2010). Class, status, and party: The changing face of political Islam in Turkey and Egypt.Comparative Political Studies,43(7), 835-861. Khondker, H. H. (2011). Role of the new media in the Arab Spring.Globalizations,8(5), 675- 679. Lewis, B. (2003).What went wrong?: the clash between Islam and modernity in the Middle East. Harper Collins.

Umass Lowell Community College Academic Scholarship free essay sample

For me it is neither Of these reasons. Am a former college drop-out who believes can do better than I did. Therefore, my reasons for going back to college are somewhat different than the average person starting college for the first time. Have something to prove to myself. Want to prove that can stay committed to college this time and get a degree. I am starting college after a long hiatus from the world of academics. Dropped out of Hilbert College in Hamburg, New York after one year. School was not the problem.I loved learning. Was just in need of money. For me the part-time job I had at the college cafeteria didnt cut it. I needed a full- time job. My uncle offered me a job at a factory called Carriage House Incorporated. He also added in the fact that the pay wage was high. I was eager to start my adult life and work full-time, so I took the offer. We will write a custom essay sample on Umass Lowell Community College Academic Scholarship or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page The work was hard labor, not really worth the money after all. I would get paid and work so much that didnt have time to enjoy the money had worked for. As the years went by became worn down and bored with the everyday routine. I realized that working there, I would never upgrade. My job would never get better. I also didnt have an option for a raise, which meant something to me. Therefore as prices on necessities and cost of living went up each year, my pay did not. College is the only way to make something better of my life. Am not sure what I want to be yet, but as I continue my with my first semester I am getting a feel for different classes. I just know what dont want to be. I dont want to be somebody who wakes up everyday with a sore back and tired fingers. I dont want life to pass me by and leave me with questions like would of, should of, could of? I am asking u to help me make a difference in my life. Help me to prove that have what it takes to become somebody important in this world. Even if I havent figured out what that is yet. Know can do this, I have what it takes to go far. Please consider me when you think of students for the upcoming semester.

College essays

College essays Education is essential to me; for without an education we are nothing. I want to keep and serve the people in my home town. Furthering my education will give me the opportunity to give them something back; and to better understand their I am the first generation in my family to go to college. My children, in the future, will be stimulated by me to continue their education and to have a better life than me, and their children will have the best they could have. My parents are They are so proud of me and I do not want to let them down. I want a better future for me and my family. I want to help them. I also want to succeed in life because four years ago I was in my country, my parents brought me to the United States in order to have a better education, a better life, and a future. Now I feel that I have the ability to achieve the dreams of my family. ...

Corporate finance Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words - 5

Corporate finance - Essay Example However, the board decided to acquire Forthnet in Greece on the premise that overseas buy-out will result in higher revenues in the long run. Regrettably, the acquisition of Forthnet was proved to be disastrous for Go Plc, and this demonstrates that how holding excessive cash could destabilise an earlier profit-making company. The choice by Go Plc to go for acquisition instead of paying out the excess cash to shareholders by way dividend has been exceptionally disadvantageous as corroborated by constant fall in its share price and the erosion of shareholder value immediately after the acquisition. The optimum level of cash balances that a company can have is the cash balances to meet their expenses, interest and capital expenditures and some level of cash balances to meet any extraordinary scenarios. Anything more than that will be regarded as too much cash reserves held by a company. The quick ratio and the current ratio will help to understand whether a company is having adequate cash reserves to cater their real time cash needs. Naturally, investors get worried about companies that hold â€Å"too much† cash because huge cash balances minimise the shareholder’s value as they offer lesser returns on their capital. The main contention of the David Einhorn, who is the manager of Greenlight Hedge Fund who successfully obtained an injection from the court against Apple Inc to declare dividend from its cash reserves there by compelling to declare the dividend from the Apple’s cash reserves. Hence, there is a likelihood that the value of shares of the Apple may increase by $50 per share or more after such a dividend declaration. Further, Apple shareholders are more worried that Apple may use these excess cash balances for negative mergers or acquisitions. This is supported by the precedents such as Microsoft’s blunder acquisition of aQuantive at $6.3 bn, EBay’s bad

Toyota Strategic Alliances Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Toyota Strategic Alliances - Essay Example Toyota Strategic Alliances Theories and analytical tools to assess strategic issues Decision makers in organizations are continually showered with various issues that can potentially affect the current performance and actions of their companies. They make constant adjustments in their strategies in order to keep them updated with the needs of the changing environment. Hence, assessment of strategic designs of organizations is critical to their success and performance. In the face of the changing global business environment, decision makers should keep in mind that strategy choices become obsolete within a very short period of time. Past styles of operating might not fit the current challenges posed by the competitive environment of the current business world. It is important to identify the chief issues facing the organization in the current financial year or a period of financial years and select some issues from this multitude to deal with at a particular point of time. Selection o f these issues are made with regard to the current business position of the firm, technological advancement of the firm, its economic conditions, human resource capacity of the firm, social and political contexts in which it operates. This process requires the organizational leaders to sort the issues faced by the firm on the basis of the importance level attached to the issue. There are various tools that organizational decision makers might exploit in order to assess the importance of the issues faced by them. ... Higher focus maintained on sorting and assessing issues demonstrate a better understanding of the issues. Hence, decision makers are better positioned to make the most appropriate response to these problems (Tan, Shen, and Langston, 2012; Jauch, 2010). The major dimensions in the strategic decision making process are top management decision, allocations of company resources for various activities, long term objectives of the firm, future orientation of the firm, multifunctional and multi- business consequences of the decisions and general external environment of the firm. This process is known as â€Å"strategic issue diagnosis (SID)† (Huff and Jenkins, 2002, p. 276). SID is a tool used as the first step to identify the issue and assess its characteristics. Diagnosis outputs cast important impact on the following stages in the decision making process. Strategic issues facing companies in Asia Pacific All business firms, in their heart, aims at a general notion; increasing the profits of the firm. For any decision to make sense in the decision making process of the business, it has to be directly (or indirectly) associated with the act of increasing profits. In any other case, the business does not have any strong reason to make investments in this decision. There are two basic issues that a company might face in its path of long term development. These issues are highly contrasting to one another. One issue pertains to the problem of expanding the business, while the other relates to contracting business. In the Asia-Pacific region, business firms face either of these two issues. In this post financial crisis period, a majority of countries are striving to recover from recessionary pressure. Therefore, there is low level of aggregate demand in the economy.