Anthropogenic activities are altering the Earth’s atmosphere; increasing the atmospheric concentration of CO2 from ~280 ppm prior to the Industrial activities to ~410 ppm at the current time. Increasing concentrations of CO2 and other greenhouse gases, warm the Earth's atmosphere and alter the functioning of various ecosystem processes. Nowhere is this more evident than in northern regions of the world, where recent increases in temperature are occurring at rates that are double the global mean surface temperature. My research on environmental and climate change in the subarctic is being carried out in association with my colleague, Professor Dr. Martin Wilmking in the Institut für Botanik und Landschaftsökologie at Universität Greifswald.  My research will focus on the use of emerging technologies in the field of dendrochronology to study environmental and climate change in the subarctic during the past several centuries.  Dendrochronology is the scientific discipline that assigns annual calendar dates to growth increments formed in trees and other woody vegetation. Dendrochronology uses information preserved in these annual growth increments (i.e., the width of tree rings) to provide insights into key processes operating in the atmosphere, biosphere, and lithosphere and how these alter or affect plant growth. I will address the following three research projects during the tenure of my Alfried Krupp Senior Fellowship:

1. Quantitative wood anatomy and artificial intelligence and deep learning technologies.
2. Blue intensity and disentangling temperature and precipitation controls of jack pine (Pinus banksiana) growth in Yellowknife, Canada.
3. Tracking arsenic contamination in the Yellowknife region using ITRAX Multiscanner XRF multi-element analysis.

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