Overview

Over the past several years we have worked closely with our Thai and Australian colleagues on Thailand tree-rings towards the development of a multi-species network of Thai chronologies for climate reconstruction. Today the Thai research project is a pivitol component of the TRL's Asian Monsoon project.

The difficulties of working with tropical species has presented many challenges. In February of 1998, with the sponsorship of the National Science Foundation and IGBP-PAGES, we held the first workshop on Southeast Asian Dendrochronololgy, SEA DENDRO98, in Chiang Mai. This very successful workshop brought together more than 50 researchers and students from 15 countries for a five day workshop. A follow-up practical training workshop, FIELDWEEK 99, was held in January, 1999 and was hosted by Chiang Mai University and the Queen Sirikit Botanic Garden in Mae Rim. Both of these important workshops have led to renewed collaborative efforts towards pushing the bounds of dendrochronology in the world's tropical regions .