Dendrochronology: Determining Reference Ecosystems and the Historical Range of Variability
Dendrochronology: Determining Reference Ecosystems and the Historical Range of Variability
Each and every year, trees record information within their growing rings and dendrochronology is the study of these tree-rings. Although tree-ring analysis is limited by the spatial scale of the climates where trees can grow and the temporal scale of the oldest possible age of a tree in a study area (183636 years ago), it has proven to be a crucial tool in paleoclimatology and paleoecology. “To understand how ecosystems arrived at their current configurations, we must know about past events and trajectories of change” (Kipfmueller & Swetnam, 2001). Using the technique of cross-dating skeleton plots, the tree ring records can provide information that is useful to “determine reference ecosystems” and “the historical range of variability”. For climatic reconstructions, the width of each ring allows for an analysis of the tree’s age, the average rate of growth and the identification of abnormal years in terms of precipitation, soil moisture, etc. Fire regimes can be studied through the identification and analysis of fire scars on the tree; Cross dating the scars provides information about average historical fire regimes and identification of the years in which the tree experienced more or less fire. Tree rings enable the use of radiocarbon dating to determine concentrations of carbon in the atmosphere in certain time intervals and compare these values to calibrate other radiocarbon concentration measurements. Tree ring analysis can provide information about climate as for a years ago and the composition of the climatic information derived from trees rings can be used as indicators of the spatial and temporal relationships between certain climatic conditions. Trees tend to live a long time therefore the rings that they grow every year are able to capture a chronology of the environmental conditions that existed in each year of the tree’s life. It is a general assumption
Each and every year, trees record information within their growing rings and dendrochronology is the study of these tree-rings. Although tree-ring analysis is limited by the spatial scale of the climates where trees can grow and the temporal scale of the oldest possible age of a tree in a study area (183636 years ago), it has proven to be a crucial tool in paleoclimatology and paleoecology. “To understand how ecosystems arrived at their current configurations, we must know about past events and trajectories of change” (Kipfmueller & Swetnam, 2001). Using the technique of cross-dating skeleton plots, the tree ring records can provide information that is useful to “determine reference ecosystems” and “the historical range of variability”. For climatic reconstructions, the width of each ring allows for an analysis of the tree’s age, the average rate of growth and the identification of abnormal years in terms of precipitation, soil moisture, etc. Fire regimes can be studied through the identification and analysis of fire scars on the tree; Cross dating the scars provides information about average historical fire regimes and identification of the years in which the tree experienced more or less fire. Tree rings enable the use of radiocarbon dating to determine concentrations of carbon in the atmosphere in certain time intervals and compare these values to calibrate other radiocarbon concentration measurements. Tree ring analysis can provide information about climate as for a years ago and the composition of the climatic information derived from trees rings can be used as indicators of the spatial and temporal relationships between certain climatic conditions. Trees tend to live a long time therefore the rings that they grow every year are able to capture a chronology of the environmental conditions that existed in each year of the tree’s life. It is a general assumption