Windfall: Region's loss a gain for science (Jordan)
Jim Jordan ’71 saw the trees downed by Hurricane Rita as a windfall for science.
Jordan, who is chair of Lamar’s Department of Earth and Space Sciences, already makes a career of sleuthing the past from subjects like rocks and minerals, so thinking of trees as a window to history was a natural.
“Part of what I do as a scientist is study the chronology of events: universe events and geologic events,” Jordan said.
Jordan recognized that the abundance of downed trees from Hurricane
Rita could provide a look into the past climatic history of the region, perhaps going back hundreds of years.
Jeffrey Fritz, a local businessman with Shell International, helped Jordan in collecting and preserving samples of the Compton Oak and other large pines and cedars.
Beaumont Mayor Guy Goodson was quick to recognize the scientific value of the old trees and assisted by asking Parks and Recreation to tag trees that appeared very old. Potential sample trees, primarily pine, but also oak and other species, soon covered more than two acres of Collier Ferry Park in north Beaumont.
Jordan’s post on a scientific listserve resulted in a response that was “a little overwhelming” he said. Calls came from researchers coast to coast.
As a result, Jordan joined with James Speer, assistant professor of geography at Indiana State University, to submit a grant proposal to the National Science Foundation to bring a group of dendrochronologists to the area.
In its simplest form, dendrochronology is the dating of past events through study of tree ring growth. Botanists, foresters and archaeologists began using the technique first developed by University of Arizona researcher A.E. Douglas in the early 1900s.
New wood growth from the cambium layer between the old wood and the bark varies with the conditions of the season. The contrast between end-of-season cells and the next year’s new cells is enough to establish a ring, making counting possible.
Researchers from a variety of disciplines have taken Douglas’ early work and expounded on it with new scientific rigors, making trees tell tales of long ago.
Beaumont’s fabled Compton Oak — a massive oak in the city’s west end felled by Hurricane Rita — was thought to be around 270 years old. Jordan was able to retrieve slices of the tree’s trunk.
“When the researchers first saw them they said ‘Wow, look at the size of those!’” Jordan said. “Then, as soon as they got close, they said ‘Look at the size of those rings.’ They were as thick as your thumb.”
Three groups independently dated the tree to 1924, making it only 81 years old. “So clearly, the age of that tree was a myth, one perpetuated from a newspaper article published in the 1970s that described the tree as being 240 years old,” Jordan said.
That doesn’t diminish the tree’s beauty or importance, but it does limit its value in revealing climate change, and it points out something Southeast Texans understand — this climate with plentiful rainfall, warm weather and mild winters is ideal for growing things.
It is this growth, or rather re-growth, that has attracted the attention of Charles Lafon and Andrew Millington, two geographers from Texas A&M who are interested in disturbance ecology. The pair met with representatives of the National Park Service to set aside research plots within the Big Thicket Preserve for a long-term study to establish how forests change after a hurricane event.
“Forest that has been shady is now flooded with light, and shrubs, tree seedlings and saplings can now grow much more rapidly. These species will also benefit from more nutrients and rainfall than before,” Lafon said. “Also, some species can begin reproducing that couldn’t before.” That includes invasive species, he said.
The pair has set up plots using GPS signals and will monitor the locations over decades. “This kind of study lets us address a lot of theory on species composition and diversity and the trajectory those take over time after a disturbance,” Lafon said.
Another proposed study will investigate the patterns of damage to vegetation over distance, terrain and forest type using satellite images and aerial photography, Lafon said.
There is opportunity for participation by Lamar University students in this research, Jordan said.
The effects of Rita on the ecology of Southeast Texas and the opportunity to learn from it will be the topic of scientific collaboration and discussions for years to come.
