2nd February 2010
Download pdf
 |
 |
The UdL and Siberian scientists to investigate the effect of climate change on trees
An agreement with the Siberian Federal University will also allow for the exchange of teachers and students 
|
|
 |
![[+] AMPLIAR IMATGE](/export/sites/universitat-lleida/ca/serveis/oficina/.galleries/images/imatges-premsa2/canviclimaticUdL.jpg "[+] AMPLIAR IMATGE"){kind=small}
Professor Jordi Voltas of the Department of Plant Production and Forest Science of the UdL, will be one of the Spanish scientists forming part of a department of international research on climate change promoted by the Siberian Federal University—an international benchmark in the study of climate through the growth rings of trees—and Banco Santander
Voltas and his Forestry, Plant Breeding and Ecophysiology research group at the ETSEA have been working for years on climate reconstruction from the information given by these rings and on studies of genetic adaptation of trees using stable isotopes (carbon-13 and oxygen-18) as a tool for interpreting the climatic signals in tree rings.
They are international pioneers in the application of this technique to plant fossils. Voltas states that changes in climate such as lack of water or rising temperatures are recorded in the rings. Interpreting them will allow us to anticipate the response of trees and forests to climate change.
| Changes in climate such as lack of water and rising temperatures are recorded in the rings. Interpreting them will allow us to anticipate the response of trees and forests to climate change |
Voltas, who is also taking part in several climatic reconstruction studies using information in fossil plants from archaeological sites from different parts of the Iberian Peninsula, Syria and Turkey, will form part of this group of international experts along with Slovak and Russian scientists and scientists from the universities of Santiago de Compostela, Cadiz and Barcelona. They all participated last November in a workshop devoted to climate change and environmental problems in the Siberian town of Krasnoyarsk.
After this meeting, the University of Lleida formalized its partnership with the Russian university through a framework agreement that was ratified at the last meeting of the Governing Council. This agreement provides for the establishment of various joint research lines in the field of dendroclimatology (the study of climate through the growth rings of trees) and the sharing of teaching and research staff and students by the two universities. A maximum of two professors and four students will travel from each university in each academic year. In the next academic year the visit of two Russian students to the ETSEA has been organized.
Last modification: