History of Tree-Ring Research

History of Tree-Ring Research

February 7February 7

• Theophrastus of Erusus• Leonardo da Vinci• Henri-Louis Duhamel du Monceau• Charles Babbage

Scientists That Have Explored Tree Rings

Twining, A.C. 1833. On the growth of timber. American Journal of Science and Arts 24: 391-393.

“Every tree had preserved a record of the seasons, for the whole period of its growth…might not this natural, unerring, graphical record of seasons past, deserve as careful preservation as a curious mineral or a new form of crystals?”

“Such a comparison… might prove the means of carrying back our knowledge of the seasons, through a period coeval with the age of te oldest forest trees.”

Theodor Hartig

1805-1880 Professor of Forestry Sciences at the University of Berlin

“On the Development of Annual Rings in Woody Plants.” -- 1853, in Uber die Entwicklung des Jahresringes der Holzpflanzen

Botanist interested in forest growth = silviculture

Robert Hartig

1839-1901 Professor at Forest Academy, Eberswalde Germany

John Muir (1838–1914) Enos Mills (1838–1922)

Andrew E. Douglass (1867-1962)

Douglass, A.E. 1929. The secret of the southwest solved by talkative tree rings. National Geographic Magazine 56(6):736-770.

Douglass in Storeroom

Laboratory of Tree-Ring Research Tucson, Arizona 1940

Florence Hawley

Bruno Huber (1899 – 1969)

Edmund Schulman (1908 – 1958)

Edmund Schulman (1908 – 1958)

Harold C. Fritts (1928 – )

Subfields of Dendrochronology

• Dendroarchaeology: Dating of Archaeological dwellings.• Dendroclimatology: Developing a record of past climate.• Dendrogeomorphology: Dating land movements such as

landslides in the past.• Dendrohydrology: Creating a record of past water availability

and flooding.• Dendroglaciology: Dating past movements of glaciers.• Dendrovolcanology: Dating the past eruptions of volcanoes.• Dendrochemistry: Using tree rings as a monitor of the

chemical makeup of the soil.• Dendroecology: Recording ecological processes such as tree-

line movement, insect outbreaks, or movement of invasive tree species.

• Dendropyrochronology: Dating the past occurrence of forest fires.

• Dendroentomology: The use of tree rings to reconstruct past population levels of insects.

• Dendromastecology: The use of tree rings to reconstruct fruiting events in trees.

Individual tree species that can live to more than 1,000 years,that we know of? • Intermountain bristlecone pine (Pinus longaeva D.K. Bailey), 4,844 years

old • Alerce (Fitzroya cuppressoides (Molina) Johnston), 3,620 years old • Giant sequoia (Sequoiadendron giganteum (Lindl.) Buchholz), 3,300

years old • Rocky Mountain bristlecone pine (Pinus aristata Engelm.), 2,425 years old • Coast redwood (Sequoia sempervirens (D.Don) Endl.), 2,200 years old • Foxtail pine (Pinus balfouriana Grev. & Balf.), 2,110 years old • Rocky Mountain juniper (Juniperus scopulorum Sarg.), 1,889 years old • Limber pine (Pinus flexilis James), 1,670 years old • Alaska yellow-cedar (Chamaecyparis nootkatensis (D.Don) Spach), 1,636• Baldcypress (Taxodium distichum (L.) Rich.), 1,622 years old • Western juniper (Juniperus occidentalis Hook.), 1,288 years old • Douglas-fir (Pseudotsuga menziesii (Mirb.) Franco), 1,275 years old • Huon pine (Lagarostrobus franklinii C.J. Quinn), 1,089 years old • Northern white-cedar (Thuja occidentalis L.), 1,032 years old • Himalayan Hemlock (Tsuga dumosa) 1,011 years old

International Tree Ring Data Bank (ITRDB)

http://www.ngdc.noaa.gov/paleo/treering.html