Scott St.George
Head of Weather & Climate Research, WTW
Head of Weather & Climate Research, WTW
Recent and forthcoming publications
A complete list of my publications and other work is available via my c.v. [PDF], as well as my Orcid and ResearchGate profiles.
Dating historic log buildings in the Fargo-Moorhead area of North Dakota and Minnesota, USA
Joseph Zeleznik, Matthew Schlauderaff, Judith Avilia, Scott. St. George (in preparation)
Tropical dendroecology: Approaches, applications, and future prospects
Adolfo Quesada-Román, Juan Antonio Ballesteros-Cánovas, Markus Stoffel, Christophe Corona, Scott St. George (in review)
The need for paleoflood investigations on the American reach of the Red River of the North
Sc0tt St. George, Joseph Zeleznik, Matthew Schlauderaff, Judith Avila (2021) [DOI]
The influence of decision-making in tree ring-based climate reconstructions
Ulf Büntgen and 39 others, Nature Communications 12, 3411 (2021) [DOI] {University of Cambridge]
The dendroclimatological potential of Common yew (Taxus baccata L.) from southern Azerbaijan
Farid Seyfullayev, Scott St. George, Vahid Farzaliyev, Sébastien Guillet, Markus Stoffel, Uday Kunwar Thapa, Tree-Ring Research 77, 32-37, 2021 [DOI]
Quantifying spatial and temporal relationships among tree-ring records
Megan Heyman, Scott St. George, Snigdhansu Chatterjee, Statistics and Applications 18, 163-185, 2020 [DOI]
Paleofloods stage a comeback
Scott St. George, Amanda Hefner, Judith Avila, Nature Geoscience 13,766–768, 2020 [DOI]
Poleward excursions by the Himalayan subtropical jet over the past four centuries
Uday Thapa, Scott St. George, Valerie Trouet, Geophysical Research Letters 47, e2020GL089631, 2020 [DOI]
Does signal-free detrending increase chronology coherence in large tree-ring networks?
Mara McPartland, Scott St. George, Greg Pederson, Kevin Anchukaitis Dendrochronologia 63, 125755, 2020 [DOI]
Increased drought intensity tracks warming in the United States’ largest river basin
Justin Martin, Greg Pederson, Connie Woodhouse, Ed Cook, Greg McCabe, Kevin Anchukaitis, Erica Wise and twelve others, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 201916208, 2020 [DOI] [PNAS Commentary] [Washington Post] [New York Times] [EurekAlert]
A global perspective on the climate-driven growth synchrony of neighboring trees
Differing pre–industrial cooling trends between tree rings and lower–resolution temperature proxies
Lara Klippel, Scott St. George, Ulf Büntgen, Paul Krusic, Jan Esper, Climate of the Past 16, 729–742, 2020 [DOI]
The limits of freely-available tree-ring chronologies
Bethany Coulthard, Scott St. George. David Meko, Quaternary Science Reviews 234, 102664, 2020 [DOI]
Boosting the signal in scientific talks
Scott St. George, Michael White, Nature 579, 621-622, 2020 [DOI]
1200 years of Upper Missouri River streamflow reconstructed from tree rings
Justin Martin, Gregory Pederson, Connie Woodhouse, Edward Cook, Gregory McCabe, Kevin Anchukaitis, Erika Wise and twelve others, Quaternary Science Reviews 224, 105971, 2019 [DOI]
The aberrant synchrony of current warming
Scott St. George, Nature 471, 483-484, 2019 [DOI] [Nature Podcast] [Science] [Smithsonian Magazine] [USA Today] [Los Angeles Times] [People] [NBC News] [Gizmodo] [Cosmos] [Business Insider] [Scientific American] [Deutschlandfunk] [de Volkskrant] [El Pais] [Fox News] [Investigatión y Ciencia] [Carbon Brief] [David Suzuki Foundation] [Spektrum der Wissenschaft]
Warfare dendrochronology: Trees witness the deployment of the German battleship Tirpitz in Norway
Claudia Hartl, Scott St. George, Oliver Konter, Lorenz Harr, Denis Scholz, Andreas Kirchhefer, Jan Esper, Anthropocene 27, 100212, 2019 [DOI] [BBC Science] [Eos] [As It Happens] [Smithsonian Magazine] [El Pais] [Botany One]
Detecting climatic and human influences in the dry pine forests of eastern Nepal’s Koshi River basin
Uday Thapa, Scott St. George. Forest Ecology and Management 440, 12-22, 2019 [DOI]
The weight of the flood-of-record in flood frequency analysis
Scott St. George, Manfred Mudelsee, Journal of Flood Risk Management 12, e12512, 2019 [DOI]
A 1200+ year reconstruction of temperature extremes for the northeastern Mediterranean region
Lara Klippel, Paul Krusic, Oliver Konter, Scott St. George, Valerie Trouet, Jan Esper, International Journal of Climatology 39, 2336-2350, 2019 [DOI]
Concord and discord among Northern Hemisphere temperature reconstructions from tree rings
Scott St. George, Jan Esper, Quaternary Science Reviews 203, 278-281, 2019 [DOI]
Interpreting historical, geological, and botanical evidence to aid preparations for future floods
PAGES Floods Working Group, WIREs Water e1318, 2019 [DOI]
Unravelling the mysteries of megadrought
Toby Ault, Scott St. George, Physics Today 71, 44-50, 2018 [DOI] [Physics Today companion]
Mississippi rising
Scott St. George, Nature 556, 34-35, 2018 [DOI] [Scientific American] [Washington Post]
A robust null hypothesis for the potential causes of western megadrought
Toby Ault, Scott St. George, Jason Smerdon, Sloan Coats, Justin Mankin, Carlos Carillo, Ben Cook, Samantha Stevenson, Journal of Climate 31, 3-24, 2018 [DOI] [Eureka Alert] [Cornell Chronicle] [Newsweek] [Physics Today]
Current and FORMER GROUP MEMBERS
As a mentor, I promote academic and professional development through examples drawn from my own experience working in universities and government and by guiding students to learning opportunities outside of their formal classes. As advisor, it’s my responsibility to be available for regular conversations about their projects (at least weekly, if not more often), provide timely and specific feedback on research products, and help them secure the equipment, permits, and resources they need to conduct their research. I try to help my students develop projects that are scientific interesting and socially relevant, and aim to give them enough responsibility so that they come to think of me as a guide rather than an authority or arbiter. I’m most proud of the fact that every single alumnus from our group (undergraduate and graduate) has found employment with universities, non-profit organizations, or federal and state agencies in positions that are directly connected to their skills and training.
Mara McPartland
Ph.D. in Geography (in progress)
M.Sc. in Natural Resource Science and Management, 2017
B.L.A in Ecology, Bennington College, 2012
Dissertation title: Developing a paleoclimate framework for multi-decadal estimation of spring timing
Future position: Postdoctoral Researcher, Alfred Wegener Institute
Mahsa Mirzakhani
Ph.D. in Geography (in progress)
M.Sc. in Environmental Science, Isfahan University of Technology, 2020
B.Sc. in Natural Resources Engineering, Payame Noor University of Shahrekord, 2016
Dissertation topic: Dendrohydrology in Iran
Judith Avila
M.A. in Geography (in progress)
B.Sc. in Geological Sciences, California State University - Fullerton, 2019
Thesis topic: Paleohydrological assessment of extreme flooding events
Sandy Wong
M.A. in Geography (in progress)
B.Sc. in Earth System Science & Geography, University of Hong Kong, 2022
Thesis topic: Building a global atlas of dreadful frosts during the past two millennia
Lo Hansen
B.Sc. in Geography (in progress)
Undergraduate research project:: Historical accounts of 19th century floods in Minnesota's upper Mississippi and Red River basins
Uday Kunwar Thapa
Ph.D. in Geography, 2020
M.Sc. in Environmental Science, Golden Gate International College, 2013
B.Sc. in Environmental Science, College of Applied Science-Nepal, 2010
Dissertation title: Investigating changes in forest growth and atmospheric circulation in the Himalayan region during the past four centuries
Current position: Climate Change Scientist, CoreLogic
Amanda Hefner
M.A. in Geography, 2020
B.Sc. in Geography and GISc, University of North Dakota, 2017
Thesis title: Holocene paleofloods in the United States and their relevance to flood mitigation, hazard assessment and policy
Current position: Regional Campaign Organizer, Save the Boundary Waters
Dr. Farid Seyfullayev
Fulbright Visiting Scholar, 2018
Award title: Studying climate change and reconstruction of past climate, floods and extreme events in Azerbaijan
Current position: Research scientist, Central Botanical Garden of Azerbaijan {Fulbright Program]
Xinran Duan
B.Sc. in Mathematics, 2018
Undergraduate research project: Quantifying long-term trends in the Red River of the North
Current position: Data Engineer, Target
Jacob Arndt
B.Sc. in Geography, 2016
Undergraduate research project: Climate variability and its relationship with air travel times in the Seattle-Minneapolis corridor
Current position: Research Associate, Oak Ridge National Laboratory
Dan Crawford
B.Sc. in Geography, 2015
Undergraduate research project: Expressing global temperature change through music
Current position: Research technician, University of Alaska [Slate] [New York Times]
Sarah Appleton
M.A. in Geography, 2015
B.A. in Geology, College of Wooster, 2012
Thesis title: Mountain hemlock (Tsuga mertensiana) growth and cool-season precipitation in Crater Lake National Park, Oregon
Current position: Education Product and Programs Specialist, National Geographic
Emily Smoter
B.Sc. in Plant Biology, 2014
Directed research project: Growth boundaries of Swietenia macrophylla and Cedrela odorata from a subtropical dry forest in Guanacaste, Costa Rica and their potential application in dendrochronology
Current position: State Environmental Manager, Minnesota Air National Guard
Xiaolu (Grace) Li
M.A. in Geography, 2014
B.Sc. in Geography, B.E. in Economics, Beijing University, 2012
Thesis title: Assessing forward modeling of tree-ring growth and the impacts of non-climatic factors on tree-ring width in the Northern Hemisphere
Current position: Postdoctoral Researcher, Cornell University
Max Torbenson
M.A. in Geography, 2013
B.Sc. in Archaeology/Palaeoecology, Queen's University (Belfast), 2011
Thesis title: Assessing the response of upper montane forests to decadal variability in winter precipitation
Current position: Research Associate, Johannes Gutenberg University
Erika Wertz
B.Sc. (Honors) in Geography, 2012
Thesis title: Testing whether vessel characteristics in bur oak can serve as proxies for severe Red River floods within the United StatesCurrent position: Forest Health Specialist, Idaho Department of Lands [CLA Alumni interview]
Visual aids
I regularly lecture on climate change, water resources, tree rings, and scientific presentations. Visual aids for some of my recent talks are available to view online at Slideshare.
Boosting the signal in scientific talks
A good talk can open the doors to new collaborations, increase your chances of funding success, and make it more likely other people will respond to your ideas. But scientific presentations are too often confusing, boring, and overstuffed. Here are some suggestions, based on our experience as speakers, audience members, and presentation trainers, that we hope will make your next conference talk or seminar more enjoyable, engaging and effective.
Ringing true: The scientific and societal relevance of dendrochronology at the start of its second century
Tree rings and other natural archives empower us to extend our perspective on environmental change, resources, and hazards. But many contemporary applications of paleoclimatology and paleohydrology are useful because of the lasting disruption to our collective environmental memory caused by colonization.
How long do trees remember?
Much of what we know regarding variations in Earth's climate during the past millennium comes from tree rings. But tree rings, like other proxies, attenuate some climate signals but amplify others, and their fidelity at longer timescales is difficult to gage. Even though dendroclimatology is well-established, questions remain about the climate clues encoded in tree rings — particularly at decadal-to-centennial timescales.
Historic accounts of extreme floods on the Red River of the North
Here I explain how Canadian and American communities along the Red River of the North have developed fundamentally different responses to the threat of flooding, and argue that these differences in flood mitigation reflect disparate experiences with particular floods during the past two hundred years.
Flood rings: Paleoflood evidence in tree-ring anatomy
In low-gradient, low energy rivers, forms of tree-ring evidence such as impact scars or stem deformation do not provide useful evidence of past floods. In this talk, I explain the strengths and limitations of wood anatomy as tools in paleoflood hydrology.
Disentangling the decadal ‘knot’ in high-resolution paleoclimatology
In this talk, we’ll discuss some of the challenges inherent to the use of high-resolution proxies to study decadal or multi-decadal climate variability, and suggest strategies that might clarify how climate acts on those timescales.
The need for new theory in global dendroclimatology
We hope this talk will encourage the sharing of ideas on how best to extract climate information from the ever-expanding network of tree-ring records across our planet and help open a discussion on the relevance of our standard theoretical framework to contemporary global dendroclimatology.
Solar ghosts: Weighing the evidence for sunspot cycles in fossil trees
In this talk, I argue the fossil tree-ring record from Chemnitz does not constitute reliable evidence of solar activity during the Permian because the individual tree-ring sequences are not correctly aligned and, as a result, the mean ring-width composite is not a meaningful estimate of year-to-year variations in tree growth in this ancient forest.
Long droughts: Using natural climate archives to gage the risks of future “megadroughts”
In this short talk, I’ll describe how climate scientists combine clues from natural weather archives (including corals, tree rings, lake sediments, and many other sources) to reveal the history of ancient megadroughts across our planet.
Expecting the unexpected: The relevance of old floods to modern hydrology
Because large floods are rare and river gage records are short, the conventional approach to flood-frequency analysis can sometimes drastically underestimate the threat posed to communities and infrastructure by extreme floods. In this lecture, I’ll argue that paleoflood hydrology is absolutely essential to judge the real risk of large, rare floods.
What to expect when you’re expecting decadal variability in hydroclimatic proxies
if simulated drought patterns generated by a simple statistical emulator are able to match the frequency, intensity, or spatial extent of droughts reconstructed by proxies, that implies that exotic forcings are not required to produce widespread megadroughts in the western United States.
Making climate data sing
Music is inherently narrative and is known to exert a powerful influence on human emotions. Here we report on a collaboration between scientists and artists at the University of Minnesota that uses data sonification with added musical elements to transmit the evidence of climate change in an engaging and visceral way.
Contact information
Twitter is fastest, email is most precise, and phone not possible.
scott@
paleohydrology.com
