About

Nicole Davi is an adjunct senior research scientist at the Tree-Ring Laboratory at Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory and a professor and chair of the Department of Environmental Science at William Paterson University. Her research focuses on developing and interpreting high-resolution paleoclimatic records to enhance understanding of climate change over the past 2000 years. She has authored or coauthored dozens of peer-reviewed articles on paleoclimate and has received awards from the National Science Foundation and other funding agencies for her research. Davi also leads several projects aimed at improving science literacy among undergraduate and K-12 students as well as public audiences. She often collaborates with artists to explore innovative ways to communicate the excitement of scientific explorations to diverse audiences.

Research topics

• Demography
• Medicine
• Internal medicine
• Family medicine
• Immunology

Selected publications

• Wood Anatomical Data from White Spruce (1950 -1999); Twisted Tree Heartrot Hill (TTHH); Yukon, Canada

  California Digital Library · 2025-01-01

  datasetOpen access

  Despite a lack of cold extremes during the current warm period (~1850 CE - present), records from tree rings in northwestern North America indicate that the summer of 1959 was uniquely cold relative to the last several centuries. In this study, we assessed the specific timing, magnitude, and spatial signature of this cold event using climate reanalysis data, a network of existing tree-ring records, and newly-developed wood anatomical data. Thin sections were produced from white spruce trees that were sampled in Yukon, Canada in the year 2000, and wood anatomical properties were analyzed using the software ROXAS (data herein). We found a particularly reduced cell wall thickness in the outer sector of the 1959 ring relative to other years, indicating that a major cold event happened in the late summer of 1959. Climate reanalysis data indicates a significant yet brief cold period spanning late July to early August likely contributed to an early cessation of cell wall thickening in that year. These results have important implications for the climatic interpretation of regional wood anatomical records. Please refer to Leland et al. (2025) for additional details: Leland, C., Davi, N., D’Arrigo, R., Andreu-Hayles, L., Pacheco-Solana, A., Edwards, J., Anchukaitis, K.J., Porter, T.J., Pisaric, M.F., Mant, M. and Galloway, T., 2025. Tree-ring evidence of the elusive 1959 summer cold event in northwestern North America. Arctic, Antarctic, and Alpine Research, 57(1), p.2445945.

  OA PDFDOI

• Climate-driven patterns of global tree longevity

  Communications Earth & Environment · 2025-07-31 · 7 citations

  articleOpen access

  Abstract Concerns about climate change-influenced tree growth declines and world tree mortality raise questions about potential reductions in tree longevity. However, the global influences of climate and growth patterns on tree longevity remain poorly understood. Here we analyzed 219,000 tree-ring widths from 4880 globe sites, encompassing 246 species, to investigate tree longevity patterns. Gymnosperms exhibited significantly greater average longevity (366 ± 240 years) than angiosperms (216 ± 81 years), with the oldest individual exceeded 3000 years. Globally, gymnosperm longevity was negatively correlated with precipitation. Arid-adapted trees exhibited significantly higher longevity, likely due to their conservative growth strategy, characterized by slow growth rates and enhanced drought resilience. Trees in harsh environments defined by high altitude, nutrient-poor soils, and minimal human impact were more likely to attain greater longevity. These findings highlight the impact of climate change on tree longevity and the necessity for targeted conservation strategies to protect these vital ecosystem components.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• An Online Interactive Tool for Exploring Water Justice with Undergraduate Students

  Pedagogy in Health Promotion · 2025-09-30

  articleOpen accessSenior author

  It is vital that the next generation of public health practitioners understand the importance of ensuring affordable and equitable access to safe drinking water for all communities, and the interconnected roles that scientific research, public policy, community engagement, and advocacy play in ensuring this. Here, we describe the Water Tool, a website where student-users develop an exploratory and customizable journey through data on drinking water suppliers’ compliance with regulations, watershed pollution, and environmental justice: https://eew-sdwa-nj.streamlit.app/ In the course we built alongside a New Jersey-specific version of the Water Tool, students complete three in-class assignments and a final project. They first use it to answer a basic set of questions such as, how many public water systems are there in the state? Students then find their own water provider through an interactive map and describe the provider’s source water and number of persons served. Next, they use the tool to investigate socioeconomic, biophysical, and public health indicators of environmental inequity in their area. In the final project, students reflect on the meaning of the information they compiled and how to communicate it. Through hands-on engagement with data and structured opportunities for reflection, the Water Tool enables students to learn both about how drinking water is regulated and how to assess information on drinking water quality for specific water systems. Although we designed the tool and assignments specifically with New Jersey in mind, it could be reconfigured for use in other states or more local contexts.

  PublisherDOI

• Tree-ring evidence of the elusive 1959 summer cold event in northwestern North America

  Arctic Antarctic and Alpine Research · 2025-02-12 · 4 citations

  articleOpen access

  Tree-ring records in northwestern North America suggest that the year 1959 was anomalously cold relative to the last several centuries. Here, we investigate the spatial characteristics, specific timing, and magnitude of the 1959 cold event through analyzing a multiparameter tree-ring network, including two wood anatomical records, and climate reanalysis data. By assessing the sensitivity of tree-ring data to a climate extreme during the instrumental era, we can better understand the capacity of these records to capture historical climate extremes. Our results suggest that cool conditions prevailed across the region in the summer of 1959, but the most extreme cold was centered around northwestern Canada, where maximum latewood density and cell wall thickness anomalies were exceedingly low. Though the entire summer of 1959 was cool, a brief episode of record cold temperatures from late July through early August likely contributed greatly to the extreme tree-ring anomalies. Our findings highlight that climate extremes during critical periods of the growing season can leave a significant imprint on maximum latewood density and that high-resolution wood anatomical data can be particularly powerful for identifying and potentially reconstructing the timing, duration, and magnitude of historical and undocumented climate extremes.

  PublisherDOI

• Drought facilitated the westward expansion of the Mongol Empire in the 1230s

  Fundamental Research · 2025-09-01 · 1 citations

  articleOpen access
  PublisherDOI

• Adoptee Experiences of Adoption Stigma

  Adoption Quarterly · 2025-12-10

  articleOpen access1st authorCorresponding
  PublisherDOI

• A Protracted Winter: Tree-Rings Indicate an Abrupt and Persistent Cooling in 1698 and 1699 CE, Gulf of Alaska

  Abstracts with programs - Geological Society of America · 2025-01-01

  article
  PublisherDOI

• El Niño-Southern Oscillation Modulates Soil Erosion in Hilly Red Soil Region of Southeastern China: Evidence from Exposed Tree Roots

  SSRN Electronic Journal · 2023-01-01

  articleOpen access
  PublisherDOI

• Little Ice Age cooling in the Western Hengduan Mountains, China: a 600-year warm-season temperature reconstruction from tree rings

  Climate Dynamics · 2023-09-06 · 13 citations

  article
  PublisherDOI

• Quantification of soil erosion dynamics in the hilly red soil region of Southeast China based on exposed roots

  CATENA · 2023-07-17 · 7 citations

  article
  PublisherDOI

Recent grants

• AGS-PRF: Towards a Dynamical Understanding of Climate Induced Disaster in Mongolian: Identifying Mechanisms, Change and Vulnerability

  NSF · $172k · 2012–2015

• Collaborative Research: Using Tree Rings to Develop Critical Scientific and Mathematical Thinking Skills in Undergraduate Students

  NSF · $236k · 2014–2020

• Collaborative Research: Climate, human and ecosystem interactions in the face of a rapidly changing North Asian biome

  NSF · $459k · 2017–2024

• Collaborative Research: Understanding the Impacts of Extreme Events on the Peoples of the Arctic

  NSF · $482k · 2021–2026

Frequent coauthors

• Rosanne D’Arrigo

  Columbia University

  103 shared

• Caroline Leland

  Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory

  97 shared

• Mukund Palat Rao

  Centre for Research on Ecology and Forestry Applications

  84 shared

• Rob Wilson

  University of St Andrews

  81 shared

• Kevin J. Anchukaitis

  University of Arizona

  72 shared

• Laia Andreu‐Hayles

  Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory

  70 shared

• Baatarbileg Nachin

  Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory

  64 shared

• Rose Oelkers

  Columbia University

  56 shared

Awards & honors

• Awards from the National Science Foundation and other fundin…