Alar Läänelaid

Associate professor of landscape ecology
Department of geography of University of Tartu

Alar Läänelaid (photo by Maris Zunde)

Alar is associate professor (docent) at the Department of Geography of the University of Tartu, Estonia. He graduated from Tartu State University as a biologist-botanist. He defended his Candidate of Sciences degree at Tartu State University in 1979 (Bog forms of Scots pine as indicators of dynamics of raised bogs, supervisor V. Masing) and PhD thesis at the University of Helsinki in 2002  (Tree-Ring Dating in Estonia, supervisor M. Eronen).

He has been employed at the Chair of Plant Taxonomy and Geobotany (later: Department of Botany and Ecology) and since 2002 at the Institute of Geography (now: Department of Geography) of the University of Tartu as a senior lecturer and an associate professor. He has taught plant taxonomy, plant anatomy, biogeography, dendrochronology and nature conservation at the University of Tartu. His main field of scientific interests is dendrochronology and dendroclimatology.

He has over 150 publications, among them 25 scientific articles classified as Scholarly articles, 9 papers as Peer-reviewed articles in other international research journals and 7 papers as Scholarly articles in Estonian peer-reviewed research journals.

Alar Läänelaid develops scientific cooperation with colleagues from Germany, Finland, Denmark and other countries. In 2017 he and colleagues organized the Eurodendro 2017 scientific conference held in Tartu, Estonia (http://www.geograafia.ut.ee/en/news/tree-rings-tell-ancient-tales-tartu-0). 

https://www.etis.ee/CV/Alar_L%C3%A4%C3%A4nelaid/eng?lang=ENG 

Selected references:

Roio, Maili; Lõugas, Lembi; Läänelaid, Alar; Maldre, Liina; Russow, Erki; Sillasoo, Ülle (2016). Medieval ship finds from Kadriorg, Tallinn. Arheoloogilised välitööd Eestis = Archeological fieldwork in Estonia, 2015, 139−158.

Läänelaid, Alar; Daly, Aoife; Sohar, Kristina (2016). Millest räägib meile puit. Dendrokronoloogilise uurimise metoodikast. What Wood Tells Us. On Dendrochronological Research Methodology. Hilkka Hiiop, Merike Kurisoo (Eds.). Rode altar lähivaates. Rode Altarpiece in Close-Up (115−134). Tallinn: Eesti Kunstimuuseum.

Läänelaid, A.; Helama, S.; Kull, A.; Timonen, M.; Jaagus, J. (2012). Common growth signal and spatial synchrony of the chronologies of tree-rings from pines in the Baltic Sea region over the last nine centuries. Dendrochronologia, 30 (2), 147−155.10.1016/j.dendro.2011.08.002.

Daly, Aoife; Läänelaid, Alar (2012). The dendrochronological dating of three paintings in the style of Bosch/Bruegel. In: Hermens, E. (Ed.). On the Trail of Bosch and Bruegel. Four Paintings United under Cross-examination (47−55).. Copenhagen: Archetype Publications.