Section 5.1: Mistik Askîwin Dendrochronology Lab

What is the Mistik Askîwin Dendrochronology Lab?

The Mistik Askîwin Dendrochronology Lab (MAD Lab) is headed by Dr. Colin Laroque (Figure 1). To learn more about him, check out his website and this interview with Climate Atlas of Canada, where he speaks more on his unique perspective as a Métis scholar. The MAD Lab consists of various graduate and undergraduate students (Figure 2) who look to understand the world around them by examining the information provided from trees and their environment. The MAD Lab is located in the department of Soil Science in the Agriculture building at the University of Saskatchewan. This lab was initially set up to create extensive tree ring chronologies within the Atlantic region and has since moved on to include data in the prairies and western Canada.

The words mistik and askîwin come from the Cree language and mean tree, and time respectively. Therefore, the MAD Lab is concerned with looking back in time using trees and the valuable information they hold to understand how the trees’ environment has changed over time. By studying these two things, the MAD Lab is able to investigate things like the impact humans have had on the environment and on the climate. Trees are great environmental time capsules as the information needed to assess the environmental conditions are stored in the tree rings. You will find more information about the MAD Lab on their website: http://www.madlabsk.ca/

What Does the MAD Lab Do?

The MAD Lab conducts dendrochronological studies on trees and forests throughout North America through the analysis of wood, soil, and water samples. By pairing tree ring data with other scientific data, the MAD Lab can understand climate history of various locations, help settle historical arguments by dating artifacts, or look at how environmental contamination has changed over time. The MAD Lab takes on projects from a wide variety of science areas such as biology, archaeology, soil science, toxicology, and more. The MAD Lab’s work takes them across Canada, from the east coast to the west coast, and from southern Saskatchewan to all the way up to the Arctic North. In their studies, the MAD Lab uses various types of equipment to obtain samples and they must also gather information about the environment at the site from local people. Back in their laboratory at the University of Saskatchewan, techniques and tools are then used to date the tree cores, mainly through measuring the growth of the tree through tree ring widths. The Mad Lab can then determine current and potential environmental contamination, and predict future changes in the site’s climate by examining past trends. Module 6 will highlight more of the dendrochronology information gathered from the MAD Lab.