To determine the response of tree rings to climate, twenty cores were extracted from ten trees of Pinus pinea L. in Istanbul-Alemdag. A response function was used to characterize the relationships between tree rings and temperature and precipitation. The precipitation of the current year and the temperature at the beginning of the growing period have a significantly positive influence on the growth of the tree ring. Mean sensitivity was found to be 0.291, and it was concluded that Pinus pinea L. is a dendroclimatologically sensitive species.

A 280-year old white oak chronology was developed for south-central Virginia to verify the timber harvesting and construction dates of a cabin located on the Reynolds Homestead Research Center. A plaque on the cabin stated that the logs were harvested in 1814. However, the outer rings of the logs dated to 1875 and 1876. From the land-use history of the area, the cabin was most likely constructed to house tenant farmers after the Civil War. Most of the periods of below average growth identified in the 280-year chronology were related to drought events. Correlations between the radial growth of the white oak with temperature and precipitation data from a local weather station were examined. Precipitation had more influence on radial growth than temperature, and significant correlations (p = 0.05) existed between radial growth and precipitation from the previous September, the current April, and the current June.

Seven charcoal tree-ring specimens from Site 1060 yielded dates with the range A.D. 544-608. It is concluded that outside A.D. 608 most nearly represents the time of construction of the pithouse.

The annual increment growth measured by dendrographs on three different species is essentially a linear function of tree-ring width. The bark increment remains more or less constant. Records from dendrographs can therefore be employed in studying the environmental and physiological determinants of ring width.

The relative weights on individual trees in a biweight site chronology can indicate the consistency of tree growth responses to macroclimate and can be the basis for stratifying trees in climate-growth analyses. This was explored with 45 years of ring-width indices for 200 trees from five even-aged jack pine (Pints banksiana Lamb.) stands. Average individual-tree relative weights were similar, but most trees had at least one transient occurrence of low relative weight. The standard deviations of individual-tree relative weights suggested that some trees had mom variable growth responses than others. The trees were classified by the average and standard deviation of their relative weights, and biweight site chronologies were then calculated for these subgroups. Chronologies derived from trees with low average weights, and from trees with high standard deviation of weights, sometimes appeared to be different from chronologies derived from the remaining trees.

The basis for the selection of trees to be used in the production of dendrochronologies has long been an issue (Douglass 1946; Fritts 1976). In humid regions the common practice has been to use trees that appear to be in good health. As a part of a larger study involving the impact of ice storms on tree-ring increments (Travis 1989), we show that trees stressed as a result of ice damage produced a stronger climatic signal than nondamaged trees.

The first dendrochronolcgical investigation in the USSR was carried out at the end of the past century. Systematic study of tree rings for the purpose of dating different events and reconstruction of natural conditions began in 1950-1960's. Tree-ring analysis is most intensively used in the studies of forest ecosystem dynamics, timing and frequency assessment of catastrophic phenomena, reconstruction of radiocarbon content in the Earth atmosphere, and dating of historical wood. Much attention is given to the development of long-term prognoses of tree growth and forest environments.