• Address:
  705 Spear Street
  South Burlington, Vermont 05403
  United States of America
  
  Phone: (802) 391-4135
  Email: femc@uvm.edu
  Website: www.uvm.edu/femc

The northeastern United States is experiencing some of the greatest shifts in climate in the US, with warming winters, increased frequency of extreme precipitation events, and severe droughts. For instance, annual mean temperatures across the northeast have risen ~1.7 °F since the 1930s. Currently, we are lacking adequate information to connect potential montane tree growth and productivity trends across the broader context of the Northern Appalachian region, which is critical to understand adaptation under future climate scenarios. Broad-scale study of tree growth is limited in feasibility due to the cost-restrictive dendrometer instruments (devices that measure the radial, or outward growth of tree stems) required to reliably measure these characteristics. In this project, we captured variation in tree radial growth as measured by traditional and low-cost dendrometers across climate and edaphic gradients linked to elevation, and between different age classes of trees and tree species within Tuckerman’s Ravine (White Mountain National Forest) in New Hampshire. Our project provided valuable comparative data for the performance of traditional point dendrometers, priced at approximately $400 (Ecomatik, Germany), to the performance of low-cost point dendrometers, priced at approximately $100 (TOMST, Czechia), to determine the accuracy of low-cost dendrometers for the study of tree growth dynamics.

• Label: baseline

• Description: Initial tree radial displacement of dendrometer sensor

• Storage Type: decimal

• Measurment Type: nominal
• Unit: micrometers

• Label: date

• Description: Day of measurement

• Storage Type: date

• Measurment Type: datetime
• String Format: M/D/YYYY

• Label: diff

• Description: Mean daily difference between measured tree radial displacement and baseline displacement for individual dendrometer sensors

• Storage Type: decimal

• Measurment Type: nominal
• Unit: micrometers

• Label: elevation

• Description: Site elevation (m above sea level)

• Storage Type: int

• Measurment Type: nominal
• Unit: m

• Label: id

• Description: Sensor unique identifier

• Storage Type: text

• Measurment Type: nominal

• Label: init_diam

• Description: Initial measured diameter of study tree

• Storage Type: decimal

• Measurment Type: nominal
• Unit: cm

• Label: mean_value

• Description: Daily mean value of measured radial displacement of dendrometer sensor

• Storage Type: decimal

• Measurment Type: nominal
• Unit: micrometer

• Label: sd_value

• Description: standard deviation of daily radial displacement

• Storage Type: decimal

• Measurment Type: nominal
• Unit: micrometer

• Label: sensor_type

• Description: Dendrometer sensor type used (Ecomatik vs. TOMST)

• Storage Type: text

• Measurment Type: nominal

• Label: size_class

• Description: Size class of tree: small (less than 15 cm dbh), large (more than 15 cm dbh) or krummholz (treeline position)

• Storage Type: text

• Measurment Type: nominal

• Label: species

• Description: Species of study tree: ACSA = sugar maple; ABBA = balsam fir

• Storage Type: text

• Measurment Type: nominal

• Label: temperature

• Description: Daily mean temperature recorded by TOMST device

• Storage Type: decimal

• Measurment Type: nominal
• Unit: Celsius

• Label: tree

• Description: Unique tree id

• Storage Type: text

• Measurment Type: nominal

• Label: un_id

• Description: Shortened sensor unique identifier

• Storage Type: text

• Measurment Type: nominal

• Dendrometer logging
  • Started: 2023-10-01
    Ended: 2024-10-12
    
  • Method Description: See sampling
  • Instrumentation: Point Dendrometers (Ecomatik, TOMST)
  • Software: HoboWare, lolly, R

• Started: 2023-10-01
  Ended: 2024-10-11
• Sampling Description: We selected one elevation transect (Tuckerman’s Ravine) on the Presidential Range in the White Mountains of New Hampshire to test dendrometer performance. Four sites spaced 200 meters in elevation (600 meters asl – 1200 meters asl) on our transect were identified. At each site, eight trees differing in size class were selected on which to place dendrometers. One low elevation site (550 m), and one high elevation subalpine site (1500 m) were subsequently included in our study (6 sites, total n = 52 trees). The small size class included four trees at each site with a diameter at breast height (dbh) between 5-15 cm, and the large size class included four trees with a dbh between 25-35 cm. This was not done at the subalpine krummholz site where all trees where too short for a dbh measurement to be taken. The three lower elevation sites used sugar maple (Acer saccharum) as the focal tree species and the three higher elevations sites used balsam fir (Abies balsamea). On each tree, we attached one expensive traditional point dendrometer device (Ecomatik, Munich, Germany) and one low-cost point dendrometer device (TOMST, Czechia) 50 centimeters apart. Dendrometers record the displacement of attached metal bands as trees grow (radial growth rates); the dendrometers that were used in this study generally have a resolution of ~0.2-0.3 microns. DBH for all trees were measured at the point where each dendrometer was attached to establish the baseline size of the individual tree. Dendrometers were installed in late September 2023 by AMC staff and left in place to record. Final measurements for this project were manually downloaded in October 2024 (with the possibility of extension per agreement by FEMC staff to decommission at a later date).
• Frequency: Continuous