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The initial employment of tree rings in natural hazard studies was simply as a dating tool and rarely exploited other environmental information and records of damage contained within the tree. However, these unique, annually resolved, tree-ring records preserve valuable archives of past earth-surface processes on timescales of decades to centuries. As many of these processes are significant natural hazards, understanding their distribution, timing and controls provides valuable information that can assist in the prediction, mitigation and defence against these hazards and their effects on society.
Tree Rings and Natural Hazards provides many illustrations of these themes, demonstrating the application of tree rings to studies of snow avalanches, rockfalls, landslides, floods, earthquakes, wildfires and several other processes. Several of the chapters are "classic studies", others represent recent applications using previously unpublished material. They illustrate the breadth and diverse applications of contemporary dendrogeomorphology and underline the growing potential to expand such studies, possibly leading to the establishment of a range of techniques and approaches that may become standard practice in the analysis of natural hazards in the future.
Dedication
Foreword: Dendrogeomorphology beginnings and futures -- a personal message
1 Tree rings and natural hazards -- an introduction
2 Snow avalanches
2.1 Dendrogeomorphology and snow avalanche research
2.2 Tree-ring dating of snow avalanches in Glacier National Park, Montana, USA
2.3 Tracking past snow avalanches in the SE Pyrenees
2.4 Tree-ring based reconstruction of past snow avalanche events and risk assessment in Northern Gaspe (Quebec, Canada)
2.5 Using dendrochronology to validate numerical simulations of snow avalanches in the Patagonian Andes
3.0 Landslides
3.1 Dating landslides with trees
3.2 Dendrogeomorphological analysis of a landslide near Lago, Calabria (Italy)
3.3 Tree-ring analysis and rockfall avalanches -- the use of weighted samples
3.4 Age of landslides along the Grande Riviere de la Baleine esturary, eastern coast of Hudson Bay, Quebec (Canada)
3.5 Rainfall up, mountain down?
4.0 Rockfall
4.1 Rocfalls and their hazard
4.2 Assessing rockfall activity in a mountain forest -- implications for hazard assessment
4.3 Tree-ring based rockfall reconstruction and accuracy assessment of a 3D rockfall model
4.4 Assessment of the rockfall frequency for hazard analysis at Sola d'Andorra (Eastern Pyrenees)
4.5 Reconstruction and spatial analysis of rockfall frequency and bounce heights derived from tree-ring analysis
5.0 Debris flows
5.1 State of the art in debris flow research: the role of dendrochronology
5.2 Using event and minimum age dating for the assessment of hazards on a debris-flow cone
5.3 Dendrogeomorphic applications to debris flows in Glacier National Park, Montana, USA
5.4 Frequency-magnitude relationships, seasonality and spread of debris flows on a forested cone
5.5 High-precision dating of debris-flow events within the growing season
6.0 Flooding
6.1 Tree-rings as paleoflood and paleostage indications
6.2 The effects of hydroelectric flooding on a reservoir's peripheral forest and newly created forested islands
6.3 Spring water levels reconstructed from ice-scarred trees and cross-sectional area of the earlywood vessels in tree-rings from eastern boreal Canada
6.4 A 100-year history of floods determined from tree rings in a small mountain stream in the Tatra Mountains, Poland
6.5 Dendrohydrology and extreme floods along the Red River, Canada
7.0 Meteorological hazards
7.1 Weather and climate extremes: where can dendrochronology help?
7.2 Dendrotempestology an dthe isotopic record of tropical cyclones in tree-rings of the Southeastern United States
7.3 Dendrochronological responses to a tornado
7.4 Dendroecology of hurricanes and the potential for isotopic reconstructions in Southeastern Texas
8.0 Wildfires
8.1 Wildfire hazard and the role of tree-ring research
8.2 Mesoscale disturbance and ecological response to decadal climateic variability in the American Southwest
Wildfire risk and ecological restoration in mixed-severity fire regimes
8.4 Wildfire ecology and management at Grand Canyon, USA: tree-ring applications in forest fire history and modeling
8.5 Wildfire risk and hazard in Northern Patagonia, Argentinia
9.0 Earthquakes
9.1 Tree-rings and earthquakes
9.2 Tree-ring analysis in natural hazards research -- application of tree-ring analysis to paleoseismology
9.3 Tree-ring abnormality caused by large earthquake: an example from the 1931 M 8.0 Fuyun earthquake
9.4 Tree-ring dated ladslide movements and seismic events in southwestern Montana, USA
9.5 Seismic damage in conifers from Olympic and Yellowstone National Parks, United States
10 Volcanic activity
10.1 Studying past volcanic activity with tree-rings
10.2 Tree-ring evidence for 1913 eruption of Volcan de Fuego de Colima, Mexico
10.3 Dendrochemical evidence of the 1781 eruption of Mount Hood, Oregon
10.4 Volcanic eruptions over the last 5 000 years from high elevation tree-ring widths and frost rings
10.5 Unknown eruption of Shiveluch volcano (Kamchatka, Russia) around AD1756 is identified by dendrochronology
10.6 Late 18th century Old Maid eruption and lahars at Mount Hood, Oregon (USA) dated with tree-rings and historical observations
11.0 Overall conclusion and outlook
11.1 Whither dendrogeomorphology
"The four editors, from the US, Canada, and Switzerland, all contribute their research to this volume, along with some 80 other investigators. The papers examine how trees record geological events, accurately dated by the evidence left in annual rings, and the inferences that may be drawn from these long records. [...] Most analyses are highly detailed and specific, so this material will primarily interest advanced students and scientists conducting geological hazard research. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Graduate students and researchers."
- M. K. Cleaveland, Choice, Vol. 48 (5), January, 2011
"Tree Rings and Natural Hazards provides a needed and useful survey of a rapidly expanding area of research: using dendrochronology to study geomorphic hazards, including snow avalanches, landslides, rockfall, debris flows, flooding, earthquakes, and volcanic activity. [...] Any tree-ring scientist [...] would profit from reading this book, as would other geoscientists and specialists in natural hazards."
- Jeff Lukas, Arctic, Antarctic, and Alpine Research, Vol. 43 (1), February, 2011
