SF State Fulbright scholar studies millennia of climate change via trees

Triana Anderson’s thesis is the foundation for her Fulbright project studying Chilean coastal climate change.

Remember in grade school learning to count tree rings to determine a tree’s age? Turns out tree rings can reveal climate information, too, says San Francisco State University student Triana Anderson. For her thesis project, she is applying a novel approach to use trees as a gauge for coastal climate change over thousands of years. Her expertise has earned her a Fulbright scholarship to do a parallel project in Chile for nine months after she graduates this fall.

“The idea is that Chile and California have two very parallel climate systems, but one is in the northern hemisphere. There are a lot of questions that climate scientists have about how coastal systems will change as the planet warms,” said Anderson, an Earth & Climate Sciences master’s student at San Francisco State. Studying trees in California and Chile will help identify how climate change differs in the two hemispheres.

Read the SF State News story.