International conference on dendrochronology started at ASU

RusDendro is carried out in Altai Krai and Altai State University, because ASU is a flagship university of Russia and has solid scholarly traditions. Moreover, Altai is an interesting research site for dendrochronologists due to diversity of natural zones.

While delivering welcoming speech, Rector of Altai State University Sergey V. Zemlyukov thanked forum organizers in the person of Rector of Siberian Federal University, RAS academician, Doctor of Biology Evgeni A. Vaganov for choosing ASU as a platform for RusDendro-2017.

“We are always glad to host such events as this conference on the premises of our university. We will do our best to make it successful. Though success has already been put behind RusDendro-2017 due to its topic and interdisciplinary character. Dendrochronology is interesting for geographers, biologists, archaeologists, so it was the content that predetermined the success of the event,” Sergey V. Zemlyukov noted.

Communication and exchange of experience between the participants are crucial for the forum, which was mentioned by RAS academician E.A. Vaganov at RusDendro-2017 opening ceremony:

“Unlike our foreign colleagues, we meet very rarely, once every three years or so. We should meet more regularly, especially that the young generation of scientists has already formed and is willing to study. Our conference is interdisciplinary, and I think that reports can be delivered by scientists belonging to different fields of knowledge – biologists, archaeologists, geneticists. This is how we will show all the emerging opportunities in fundamental and applied dendrochronology.”

RusDendro-2017 also hosted representatives from the Laboratory of Tree-Ring Research at the University of Arizona. They emphasized the fact that American scientists have special interest in the development of Russian dendrochronology.

“The unique character of Russian dendrochronology lies in the fact that 3 schools of thought have formed here at once: Siberian, Ural, and Moscow ones. This is the strength of Russian dendrochronological school, which has created a tradition to carry out RusDendro on a regular basis,” scientist from the University of Arizona Irina Panyushkina said. “Indeed, the conference should be attended by more scientists from other fields of knowledge, so that they could feel the power of dendrochronological methods and start involve dendrochronologists in their multidisciplinary projects more often.”

Today RusDendro-2017 continues working in three directions: dendroclimatology, dendroecology, and dendrohydrology. Official part of the conference will be finished on Friday, 8 September 2017.