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Project History |
Dendrochronology is new in Asia. New Zealand was ahead in the practice of dendrochronology (Bell, V.E. and R.E. Bell, 1958) and followed by Australia (Ogden, J. 1978). In tropical Asia, India spearheaded dendrochronology (Pant, G.B., 1979). There was initially more preference for conifers until teak Tectona grandis became a reliable tree species for dendrochronology (D’Arrigo, R. and G. Jacoby, 1994). Dendrochronology in Indoaustralasia used primarily conifers and teak. Later, it was conceived by Cook et al (2004) in a training they sponsored in Bangkok, Thailand on May 24-26, 2006 that reconnaissance for other Asian tree species should extend South-Southeast Asian Dendrochronology (SSEADENDRO).
Following the aforementioned training, a meeting was called and presided by LDEO scientist, Dr. Brendan M. Buckley. Attending this meeting were Dr. Khwanchai Duangsathaporn (Thailand), Dr. William E. Wright (LDEO), Dr. Nimal Gunatilleke (Sri Lanka), Dr. Hemant Borgaonkar (India) and Dr. Nestor T. Baguinon (Philippines). In that meeting, it was agreed upon that a proposal for APN FUNDING will be prepared and submitted to address the need to find tree species with distinct rings and extend dendrochronology in Indomalaya where teak and pines are not naturally present.
UPLB professor, Dr. Nestor T. Baguinon, wrote the first draft capsule proposal and sent to all SSEADENDRO members. The proposal snowballed into its present form and substance as collaborators sent their contributions. The Project was awarded for implementation on 24 April 2007. A communication to start Project and Remittance of Project Funds in late July, 2007 followed. LDEO provided Principal Investigator, Dr. Baguinon, a one-month training on Dendrochronology in August, 2007. A meeting on September 8-9, 2007 intended to adopt common procedures in reconnaissance work was hosted by Thailand. A Primer was prepared for the standard conduct of reconnaissance work. Fieldwork commenced after the first APN meeting until in December 5-8, 2008 at UPLB, Philippines reconnaissance outputs were presented. Templates on how to publish results has been made available after the second and last workshop.
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