Tree Rings: Scientists Use a Simple Method to Unlock Trees' History Without Cutting

The environmental circumstances that the tree endured each year may be seen in tree rings that can be easily seen on stumps. However, scientists have long developed an alternative technique that allows them to read these circumstances and taking samples without having to chop down trees to the stump.

Tree Rings: Archived by Nature

Each year, a new, distinctive circle of dead wood is formed around the trunk of trees. As trees mature, they generate fresh, distinct rings that radiate outward from the center. According to the New York Times, one may discover statistics on that year's precipitation, temperature, and other factors in that ring.

The top of tree stumps has a bullseye-shaped pattern of rings. Most people are aware that by counting the rings, the age of a tree can be determined. However, the cross-section of a tree trunk reveals additional details too other than its age, says National Park Service.

Dendrochronology

The study of information gathered from tree ring growth is called dendrochronology. Experts can come from a wide range of academic areas because of how broadly and variedly this data is applied. Dendrochronology has no degrees since, despite its general applicability, the methodology is very constrained. Most people who research tree rings often come from one of several fields, including dendrology, chemistry, archeology, and climate science.

Management and protection of forests are also included in dendrology. Dendrologists study all facets of trees as scientists who study trees. They can learn about the current local climate through tree rings.

Because some of the materials used in these professions' study projects need to be dated, dendrochronology is also useful to art historians, medieval studies graduates, classicists, ancient, and historians. A bachelor's degree in any of the aforementioned fields is typically sufficient to analyze the data produced by dendrochronology, according to EnvironmentalScience.org.

Also Read: Forest Thinning, Cutting Down Trees Could Ease Wildfires in US, Officials Say

Sample Without Cutting Trees

Ecologists who study tree rings take a small "tree core" sample from each living tree using a device with a pencil-sized cutting tube called an incremental borer. The effect on the tree is comparable to routine insect activity and a human medical biopsy. Every year of a tree's existence is represented by a pattern of thin and broad rings in the cylindrical core of the tree.

Analyzing a tree core's patterns is similar to reading a history book from a certain era. We may determine whether a tree was prospering or struggling based on the breadth, color, and pattern of its tree rings.

Because the tree can grow more than it would have been able to in a dryer year, a particularly rainy year could result in wider rings. A wildfire can be detected by a blackened scar, while an insect infestation may be indicated by various signs.

Tree rings may link a tree to certain historical events in addition to revealing environmental pressures. By matching the patterns that evolved at the same time, tree cores from two separate trees may be joined to produce a longer timeline, National Park Service says.