Pinus roxburghii stand dynamics at a heavily impacted site in Nepal: Research through an educational fieldweek

• DOI: 10.1016/j.dendro.2016.01.005
• Publication Date: 2016-02-04T02:32:26Z
• Authors: James H. Speer; Achim Bräuning; Qi-Bin Zhang; Kambiz Pourtahmasi; Narayan P. Gaire; Binod Dawadi; Prabina Rana; Yub Raj Dhakal; Ram Hari Acharya; Dhruba Lochan Adh...; Shankar Adhikari; Prakash Chandra A...; Damodar Bagale; Binod Baniya; Sanjaya Bhandari; Navin Dahal; Suchana Dahal; Narmandakh Ganbaatar; Anjana Giri; D.B Gurung; Yeshey Khandu; Binu Maharjan; Rajan Maharjan; Rayees Ahmad Malik; Cheryl D. Nath; Bikash Nepal; Justine Ngoma; Ramesh Pant; Mitra Lal Pathak; Hari Paudel; Bimal Sharma; Md Sarwar Hossain; Bayarbaatar Soron...; Thida Swe; Ichchha Thapa; Achyut Tiwari
• Keywords: Experiential learning; Pinus roxburghii; Nepal; Anthropogenic impact; [SHS.EDU] Humanities and Social Sciences/Education; [SDV.SA.SF] Life Sciences [q-bio]/Agricultural sciences/Silviculture, forestry; 15. Life on land; 16. Peace & justice; 01 natural sciences; Education; 0105 earth and related environmental sciences

The fieldweek associated with the 4th Asian Dendrochronological Association Conference was an excellent opportunity for education, networking, and research. The participants and group leaders worked together for five days in an area that was new to some of the group leaders and new to some of the participants which enabled us to learn about forest ecology around Kathmandu and Nagarkot, Nepal. The fieldweek was an excellent networking opportunity and the group leaders and participants bonded which strengthened international research in dendrochronology and continues to foster new research collaborations. All of the group leaders and participants had the opportunity to learn about tree-ring formation in Pinus roxburghii at 1500 masl elevation, to explore its wood anatomy, and to examine specific research questions in our field area. In the end we developed a better understanding of the stand-age structure of a stand of trees in Nagarkot, explored the erosion history from exposed roots, and investigated tree health issues on closely related sites. We found that P. roxburghii poses some dating issues with false and micro rings at this elevation, but we were still able to develop a tree-ring chronology from this species and make preliminary assessments of stand dynamics and health.