9530427 Luckman Treelines are critical, climate-sensitive, ecotones in mountain areas that have been the focus of many studies of environmental change. Understanding the present and former dynamics of these environments is crucial to the interpretation of these records. The adoption of PEP-I transect concept for the Americas by IGBP-PAGES offers unparalleled opportunities for collaborative studies by scientists working at or near treelines along the length of the American Cordillera. This proposal requests IAI Start-Up Grant Phase I funding to hold a workshop in Jasper, Alberta, Canada in late September- early October 1996, to focus on treeline environments along the American Cordillera. The meeting will bring together scientists from IAI member countries who are experts in a wide range of fields: paleoecology, dendrochronology, and climatology. This mix will allow the group to formulate a science plan for the understanding of the dynamics of present treeline environments, and the reconstruction of environmental and climate changes at treeline sites. The participants will review the present information base on treeline environments along the American Cordillera and discuss the formulation of collaborative, comparative studies, that will evaluate and benchmark the climate signals found at modern treeline sites and determine the response of this sensitive environment to recent climate variation; develop a network of comparable high resolution proxy climate series that show internal climate variation at treeline over the last ca 1000 years for key localities; and utilize these data to examine the local and regional patterns of internal and longer term climate variability to develop data on key temporal and spatial patterns of forcing functions. This meeting will lead to the development of a series of collaborative, international, interdisciplinary research proposals for Phase II of the IAI Start-Up Grants that implement this scientific agenda. %%% Treelines are critical, climate-sensiti ve mountain areas that have been the focus of many studies of environmental change. Understanding the present and former dynamics of these environments is crucial to the interpretation of these records. The adoption of the Pole-Equator-Pole (PEP-I) transect concept for the Americas by the International Geosphere Biosphere Programme's "Past Global Changes Program" (IGBP-PAGES) offers unparalleled opportunities for collaborative studies by scientists working at or near treelines along the length of the American Cordillera. This proposal requests IAI Start-Up Grant Phase I funding to hold a meeting in Jasper, Alberta, Canada in late September- early October 1996 and to be focused on treeline environments along the American Cordillera. The meeting will bring together scientists from IAI member countries who are experts in a wide range of fields: paleoecology, dendrochronology, and climatology. This mix will allow the group to formulate a science plan for the understanding of the dynamics of present treeline environments, and the reconstruction of environmental and climate changes at treeline sites. This meeting is planned to lead to the development of a series of collaborative, international, interdisciplinary Phase II IAI Start-Up Grants research that implement this scientific agenda. These proposals will promote and enhance the IAI scientific goals by fostering collaborative studies by scientists and institutions in several IAI member states that share common interests in mountain environments and climate change. They will also bring together and provoke interaction among a diverse group of scientific specialists in the earth, life and physical sciences who focus on the same environment in quite different ways. An additional outcome of the meeting will be a proceedings volume ("Treeline Environments of the Americas") that will summarize the information and discussion presented at the meeting. Participants of this proposal are from the following IAI countries: Argentina; Bolivia; Canada ; Chile; the United States; and Venezuela. These countries are Member States of the IAI, an initiative to stimulate cooperative research on global change issues in the Americas. The National Science Foundation is the designated U.S. Government to carry out U.S. responsibilities within the IAI. ***
