As a research scientist at the Swiss Federal Research Institute (WSL), my work has primarily been devoted to the field of dendroclimatology and -ecology through the development and analysis of new and existing tree-ring width and density records. My work has also focused on the methodological improvement of standardization techniques, chronology development processes, network compilations, calibration trials, and more general time-series analyses. The talk at the Instituto Pirenaico de Ecología (CSIC) in Zaragoza will provide an overview on modern tree-ring research at the interface of palaeoclimatology and ecology. Most recent, thus partly exploratory research endeavours ranging from intra-annual to Holocene time-scales, at both the cellular level and the global scale will be discussed. Different issues include, for example, the development and analysis of independent European tree ring-based temperature and precipitation reconstructions for the last 2500 years, as well as the establishment of dendroclimatological research on Greenland driftwood to create a Holocene-long record that will allow boreal summer temperature variations, North Atlantic current dynamics and post-glacial rebound rates to be estimated. The talk will further address the geographic dispersal and external forcing of plague outbreaks across medieval Europe, and will introduce a European-wide database of historical felling dates of construction timber, which might enables environmental and socio-economic fingerprints to be detected. More ecological oriented examples will include the recent collapse of thousand-year clockwork-like cyclic insect outbreaks in the Swiss Alps, as well as climate-induced changes in mushroom harvest.
