#141 - Clay Tucker: Tree Rings and Hurricanes

Storytellers of STEMM

Today's storyteller is Dr Clay Tucker! Clay is a tree ring scientist, also known as a dendrochronologist, and his specialty is related to hurricanes and climate change. I could have called this episode "Dendrochronology" but probably most people have no idea what that would mean and I didn't want to detract from this fabulous episode!! So trees grow and add rings every year, so by taking a small core of the tree you get a visual representation of that tree's life, essentially. And you can see the impact of droughts, hurricanes, and disease on the growth of that tree over time. In Clay's research, he's used tree rings from pine trees across the southeastern US to understand the impacts of hurricanes. It's fascinating research and why I asked Clay to be on the podcast! Clay and I are both in Baton Rouge, and know a lot of the same people, and so we talk about that and relationships within science, about how technology in this era allows for collaboration across continents and time zones, about what I call the "Louisiana Quicksand Conundrum", about learning to read the landscape, and of course about trees and wetlands and research. This is such a fun conversation and Clay is great and I hope everyone enjoys it!

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You can find Rachel Villani on Twitter @flyingcypress and Storytellers of STEMM on Facebook and Twitter @storytellers42.

You can find Clay Tucker on Twitter @climateclay and his website https://coastalab.wixsite.com/claytucker.

LSU School of Renewable Natural Resources: https://www.lsu.edu/rnr/

LSU Department of Geography & Anthropology: https://lsu.edu/ga/index.php

The documentary about Richard Proenneke that Clay describes as his favorite documentary ever is called "Alone in the Wilderness".

Episodes referenced in this episode: #61 - Ashley Booth

Book List: Rising by Elizabeth Rush, One Man's Wilderness by Sam Keith & Richard Proenneke, Voyage of the Turtle by Carl Safina

Recorded on 20 September 2021.