Franco Biondi, assistant professor of geography at the University of Nevada, has been awarded the National Science Foundation's Faculty Early Career Development award. He will receive $400,000 over the next five years to do a long-term study of climate variability in the Great Basin.

A major component of this research is the development of tree-ring records. By obtaining core samples from trees, Biondi will put together a history of climate in the Great Basin going back hundreds of years.

&#8220There is very little information on the climate dynamics in the Great Basin over the last few centuries,&#8221 Biondi said. &#8220This will be relevant not only to people interested in the past, but also the future in terms of things like water supply and fire frequency – very important issues.&#8221

By drilling pencil-size cores from a number of trees in each Great Basin mountain range, Biondi and his team will be able to obtain data on annual climate going back as far as 1,000 years. &#8220Trees basically work like recorders of precipitation,&#8221 he said. &#8220The damage to the tree is very small. It's almost like taking a blood sample from an animal.&#8221

Biondi, in collaboration with Chris Ryan, a geography instructor at Western Nevada Community College and coordinator for Geographic Alliance In Nevada (GAIN), will be involving school teachers from around the state in the project. The teachers will learn how to do tree-ring studies, spending time at the university, in the field and in laboratories. Then they will develop lesson plans to use in the classroom.

&#8220You're looking at a partnership here,&#8221 Ryan said. &#8220The university, the community college, K-12 education – outreaching to teachers and students. As part of this, we're also targeting minority students, especially Latino students, introducing them to science.&#8221

Biondi, 42, who came to Nevada in 2000, from the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University of California, San Diego, has received international recognition for his studies of climate in Southern and Baja California. At Scripps, he established a research program in dendroclimatology, and assembled the tree-ring laboratory now located at the University of Nevada.

By John Wheeler, (775) 784-1581; <a href="mailto: jwheeler@adv.unr.edu"> jwheeler@adv.unr.edu</a>