A Guide to Measuring Tree-Ring Widths

Abstract

Dendrochronologists in their scientific inquiries use quantitative data, of which tree-ring widths form a major part. In order to gather the necessary quantitative tree-ring data, someone must be trained to measure the widths of the tree rings. The purpose of this paper is to explain to the person who will actually measure the tree-ring widths how the measuring process should be performed at the Laboratory of Tree-Ring Research. The following three sections describe the three phases of the measuring process. The first section deals with the preparations that must be performed before the ring widths can be measured. The second section describes the procedures for measuring the ring widths. The final section describes the checking procedure used to test the reliability of the measurements.