About the EDF
The European Dendroecological Fieldweek (EDF) is a field and lab course for any people interested in tree-ring research. It covers the full spectrum of scientific fields where tree-rings can be used and covers multiple scales from the individual cell to the stand level and from seasonal to multi-centennial periods. It faces a wide range of topics including climatology, ecology, physiology, geomorphology or archaeology, and strongly fosters cross-disciplinary links.
Participants will learn and apply a wide variety of methods including:
- Sampling in the field and sample preparation
- Visual and statistical cross-dating
- Data production of
- Tree-ring width
- Blue intensity (wood density)
- Xylem & phloem cell anatomy (including image analysis)
- Stable isotopes
- Statistical data analysis and software training such as R, ARSTAN, COFECHA, COORECORDER, TSAP, ROXAS, KNMI Climate Explorer and others
- How to give a good presentation
Who can attend EDF?
EDF is open for any people interested in tree-ring research from all over the world, and can easily integrate everybody, from absolute beginners without any background in tree-ring research to very experienced scientists. We warmly welcome undergraduate and graduate students, PhD candidates, Postdocs, advanced researchers, but also forest service and other federal agency people and private persons. Since EDF is hosted at the Oeschger Centre for Climate Research of the University of Bern/Switzerland, students can be granted with 2.5 ESCS.
How is the EDF designed?
The EDF is a 8-day field and lab course. During one week participants will conduct a mini research project on a specific topic. Each topic will include keynote lectures for the whole audience, and fieldwork and data production/analysis in small groups, supervised by one or two internationally well acknowledged tree-ring experts. In the evenings participants can present their own projects (e.g. their Master or PhD thesis or other work). Participants and advanced scientists will spend the whole week together in a relaxed atmosphere, and there will be ample opportunity to learn, discuss, exchange knowledge, have fun and make new friends from all around the world.
Where and when does EDF take place?
The EDF always takes place at the end of August / beginning of September at varying locations in Europe.