ABOUT THE COLLECTION

Tree-Ring Research is the peer-reviewed journal of the Tree-Ring Society. The journal was first published in 1934 under the title Tree-Ring Bulletin. In 2001, the title changed to Tree-Ring Research.

The Tree-Ring Society and the Laboratory of Tree-Ring Research at the University of Arizona partnered with the University Libraries to digitize back issues for improved searching capabilities and long-term preservation. New issues are added on an annual basis, with a rolling wall of five years.

QUESTIONS?

Contact the Editor of Tree-Ring Research at editor@treeringsociety.org.

Collections in this community

Recent Submissions

  • The Potential To Reconstruct Manasi River Streamflow In The Northern Tien Shan Mountains (NW China)

    Yuan, Yujiang; Shao, Xuemei; Wei, Wenshou; Yu, Shulong; Gong, Yuan; Trouet, Valerie; Institute of Desert Meteorology, CMA, Urumqi 830002, China; Swiss Federal Research Institute WSL, 8903 Birmensdorf, Switzerland; Institute of Geographical Sciences and Resources, CAS, Beijing 100101, China; Hydrological and Water Resources Bureau of Xinjiang, Urumqi 830000, China (Tree-Ring Society, 2007-12)
    We present a tree-ring based reconstruction of water-year (October–September) streamflow for the Manasi River in the northern Tien Shan mountains in northwestern China. We developed eight Tien Shan spruce (Picea schrenkiana Fisch. et Mey.) chronologies for this purpose, which showed a common climatic signal. The hydroclimatic forcing driving tree growth variability affected streamflow with a three- to four-year lag. The model used to estimate streamflow is based on the average of three chronologies and reflects the autoregressive structure of the streamflow time series. The model explains 51% of variance in the instrumental data and allowed us to reconstruct streamflow for the period 1629–2000. This preliminary reconstruction could serve as a basis for providing a longer context for evaluating the recent (1995–2000) increasing trends in Manasi River streamflow and enables the detection of sustained periods of drought and flood, which are particularly challenging for managing water systems. Several of the reconstructed extended dry (wet) periods of the Manasi River correspond to reconstructed periods of drought (flood) in Central Asia in general and in other Tien Shan mountain locations in particular, suggesting that the analysis of Tien Shan spruce could contribute significantly to the development of regionally explicit streamflow reconstructions.
  • Effects Of Dwarf Mistletoe On Climate Response Of Mature Ponderosa Pine Trees

    Stanton, Sharon; Department of Biology, Portland State University (Tree-Ring Society, 2007-12)
    This research examines the influence of western dwarf mistletoe (Arceuthobium campylopodum) infection on the radial growth response of mature ponderosa pines (Pinus ponderosa) and its effects on dendroclimatic reconstructions. I hypothesize that trees with mistletoe have lower annual growth rates than uninfected trees, but exhibit higher mean sensitivities and stronger relationships between growth and climate variation. I tested these hypotheses using correlation and regression analyses to compare 100-year crossdated and standardized tree-ring chronologies from 26 infected and 29 uninfected trees. I compared both chronologies to climate variation as measured by changes in total precipitation, minimum, mean, and maximum temperature, and the Palmer Drought Severity Index (PDSI). Results show that trees infected with dwarf mistletoe have higher radial growth rates, exhibit greater sensitivity, and respond more strongly to climate variation. Both infected and uninfected chronologies are significantly correlated with the respective climate variables, but exhibit different patterns. The strongest correlations are between infected trees and PDSI for all months tested; significant correlations between uninfected trees and PDSI are limited to May through December lagged from the previous year. These results suggest mistletoe-infected trees are more sensitive to climatic factors than uninfected trees and may be useful for dendroclimatic analyses.
  • Tree-Ring Dating of Sinmu-Mun, The North Gate of Kyungbok Palace in Seoul

    Park, Won-Kyu; Kim, Yo-Jung; Seo, Jung-Wook; Lee, Jin-Ho; Wazny, Tomasz; School of Forest Resources, Chungbuk National University; Institute for the Study, Conservation and Restoration of Cultural Heritage, Nicholas Copernicus University of Torun (Tree-Ring Society, 2007-12)
    The cutting dates of 10 wood timbers (girders and corner rafters) of Sinmu-mun, the north gate of Kyungbok Palace in Seoul, were determined by the dendrochronological method. Tree-ring chronologies of unknown dates derived from the timbers were crossdated using the graphic comparison method against the dated master chronologies derived from living trees. The living trees for the masters used for this study were Pinus densiflora Sieb. et Zucc. (Japanese red pine), a major timber species for Korean traditional buildings. By comparing the Sinmu-mun samples with the masters from the western Sorak Mountains in central-eastern Korea, the Sinmu-mun samples yielded the cutting dates A.D. 1868, 1869, and 1870/1871. Surprisingly, these dates are 3 to 6 year later than the known date (A.D. 1865) of the Sinmu-mun reconstruction, which was recorded in a historical document ‘Ilsungrok’, the King’s official diary. Since the time that the Sinmu-mun construction date had been questioned, another record was found in the 1872 April issue of Ilsungrok, indicating the rebuilding of Sinmu-mun in the 1870s. Both pieces of evidence, from tree-ring dates and historic records, prove that the rebuilding of Sinmu-mun started after the Fall of 1870, but not later than April 1872. The results prove that tree-ring dating is a precise dating method and it can be applied to archaeological studies on Korean structures.
  • Climate Response Of Dahurian Larch In Secrest Arboretum, Wooster, Ohio, USA

    Moore, Tyler; Malcomb, Nathan; Wiles, Gregory; Department of Geology, The College of Wooster, Wooster, OH 44691, USA (Tree-Ring Society, 2007-12)
    Larix gmelinii (Rupr.) Kuzen. (Dahurian larch) is an important arctic tree-line species in the northern boreal forests of Eurasia. The region’s climate is predicted to change dramatically over the next century, yet little is known about how this species will respond to secular changes in temperature and precipitation. To this end, a ring-width chronology from 25 cores from a stand of seven Dahurian larch trees growing in the Secrest Arboretum, northeastern Ohio, was developed to test the climatic sensitivity of the species in a more temperate climate. The chronology extends from 1931 to 2005 and correlation analysis with monthly precipitation and temperature records shows growth was most strongly limited by summer precipitation until recent decades when sensitivity has shifted to late spring precipitation. The results from this study serve as a contemporary analog to the future growth response of Dahurian larch under warmer and wetter growing conditions in the boreal and arctic regions of Eurasia.
  • Atrics- A New System For Image Acquisition In Dendrochronology

    Levanič, Tom; Slovenian Forestry Institute, Večna pot 2, SI-1000 Ljubljana, Slovenia (Tree-Ring Society, 2007-12)
    We developed a new system for image acquisition in dendrochronology called ATRICS. The new system was compared with existing measurement methods. Images derived from the ATRICS program and processed in any of the available programs for automatic tree-ring recognition are of much higher detail than those from flatbed scanners, as optical magnification has many advantages over digital magnification (especially in areas with extremely narrow tree rings). The quality of stitching was tested using visual assessment - no blurred areas were detected between adjacent images and no tree rings were missing because of the stitching procedure. A test for distortion showed no differences between the original and captured square, indicating that the captured images are distortion free. Differences between manual and automatic measurement are statistically insignificant. The processing of very long cores also poses no problems.
  • Dendroarchaeology Of The Salt Lake Tabernacle, Utah

    Bekker, Matthew F.; Heath, David M.; Department of Geography, Brigham Young University, Provo, UT 84602, USA (Tree-Ring Society, 2007-12)
    We examined tree rings from Douglas-fir (Pseudotsuga menziesii var. glauca (Beissn.) Franco) timbers in the Salt Lake Tabernacle, constructed from 1863–1867 in Salt Lake City, Utah. A seismic upgrade to the Tabernacle initiated in 2005 required the replacement of wooden timbers with steel beams. Our objectives were to 1) determine cutting dates for the timbers to identify logs that may have been salvaged from previous structures, and consequently would have greater historical significance, 2) identify the species and provenance of the timbers, and 3) develop a chronology that could extend or strengthen the existing tree-ring record for environmental and historical applications in northern Utah. We built a 162-year floating chronology from 13 cores and 15 cross-sections, crossdated visually using skeleton plots and verified statistically with COFECHA. Statistically significant (p , 0.0001) comparisons with established chronologies from northern Utah indicated that the Tabernacle chronology extends from 1702–1862. Cutting dates ranged from 1836–1863, with most in 1862 or 1863 and a smaller cluster around 1855. The broad range of cutting dates suggests that some of the timbers were used in previous structures, and that some trees were dead before they were cut. This study provides valuable information for the preservation of historical materials, and increases the sample depth of existing chronologies during the 18th and 19th Centuries.
  • Tree-Ring Based Drought Reconstruction (A.D. 1855-2001) For The Qilian Mountains, Northwestern China

    Tian, Qinhua; Gou, Xiaohua; Zhang, Yong; Peng, Jianfeng; Wang, Jinsong; Chen, Tuo; Center for Arid Environment and Paleoclimate Research (CAEP), Key Laboratory of Western China’s Environment Systems MOE, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou, 730000, China; Graduate School of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100039, China; Cold and Arid Regions Environmental and Engineering Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Lanzhou 730000, China; The State Key Laboratory of Loess and Quaternary Geology, The Institute of Earth Environment, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Xi’an 710075, China (Tree-Ring Society, 2007-06)
    A juniper (Juniperus przewalskii Kom) tree-ring width chronology has been developed from the western-most forest of the Qilian Mountains. Our analyses demonstrate both temperature and precipitation have significant effects on tree growth and that both should be considered in climate reconstruction. Thus a regional drought history (A.D. 1855–2001) is reconstructed by calibrating with a linear interpolation through four Palmer Drought Severity Index (PDSI) grid values nearest the sampling site. Our reconstruction extends the drought history of this area and also reveals that the most severe drought occurred in the 1920s. In the context of the drought history of western China, this extreme drought between 1925–1931 is consistent over a large surrounding region of Northwestern China. Multi-taper spectral analysis reveals the existence of significant 40- to 46-year, 29-year, and 2.1- to 3-year periods of variability. Overall, our study provides reliable information for the research of past drought variability in the Qilian Mountains, Northwestern China.
  • Dendroclimatological Investigations Of Sea Buckthorn (Hippophae Rhamnoides) And Reconstruction Of The Equilibrium Line Altitude Of The July First Glacier In The Western Qilian Mountains, Northwestern China

    Xiao, Shengchun; Xiao, Honglang; Kobayashi, Osamu; Liu, Puxing; Cold and Arid Regions Environmental and Engineering Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Lanzhou 730000, China; The University Forest, Faculty of Agriculture, Ehime University, Ehime 7908566, Japan; College of Geography and Environment Sciences, Northwest Normal University, Lanzhou 730070, China (Tree-Ring Society, 2007-06)
    Radial growth characteristics of a high-elevation shrub species, sea buckthorn (Hippophae rhamnoides), were investigated at four sites in a river valley at altitudes ranging from 3,333 to 3,820 m a.s.l. close to the terminus of the July First Glacier in the western Qilian Mountains of northwestern China. Radial growth of the sea buckthorn was significantly and positively correlated with the mean monthly temperature in June of the current growing season. Based on the fact that fluctuations in the shrub’s radial growth and the glacier’s equilibrium-line altitude (ELA) are affected by climatic variables, a tree-ring width chronology of the four sites was used to reconstruct the ELA from 1950 to 2003. The resulting ELA model explained more than 55.3% of the variance in the ELA of the July First Glacier series. On a decadal time scale, the cumulative-departure curve of the reconstructed ELA series showed an increasing trend from the 1950s to the mid-1960s, followed by a descending trend from the mid-1960s to the mid-1970s. The ELA appears to have remained stable from the mid-1970s to the mid-1990s, but has displayed dramatic variations during the past decade.
  • Application Of ¹⁴C Wiggle-Matching To Support Dendrochronological Analysis In Japan

    Nakamura, T.; Okuno, M.; Kimura, K.; Mitsutani, T.; Moriwaki, H.; Ishizuka, Y.; Kim, K. H.; Jing, B. L.; Minami, M.; Takada, H.; et al. (Tree-Ring Society, 2007-06)
    ¹⁴C wiggle-matching was applied to two wood samples closely related to geological and archaeological events with associated dendrochronological dates, to demonstrate the accuracy of ¹⁴C dating with accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS). Wiggle-matching on charred wood with bark, excavated from a pyroclastic mud-flow deposited by the huge 10th Century eruption of the Baitoushan Volcano, revealed the eruption age as cal A.D. 935 +8/-5 with 95% confidence. This date is consistent with the eruption age of A.D. 912 to A.D. 972 estimated by dendrochronology on two wooden boards that had clear stratigraphical connections to the B-Tm tephra deposit in Japan, an ash fall layer formed by the eruption of the Baitoushan Volcano. The date is also consistent with an A.D. 937–938 date estimated by the analysis of varved sediments from Lake Ogawarako in Aomori prefecture. The other wooden board collected from the Mawaki archaeological site in Ishikawa prefecture was wiggle-matched as 783 +13/-11 cal B.C. with 95% confidence, which is consistent with the dates of 830 cal B.C. to 759 cal B.C. obtained for seven wooden poles from the same wooden structures as the wooden board. These results are highly encouraging for obtaining accurate dates on wood when dendrochronology cannot be used.
  • Tree-Ring-Derived Precipitation Records From Inner Mongolia, China, Since A.D. 1627

    Liu, Yu; Sun, Junyan; Yang, Yinke; Cai, Qiufang; Song, Huiming; Shi, Jiangfeng; An, Zhisheng; Li, Xuxiang; The State Key Laboratory of Loess and Quaternary Geology, The Institute of Earth Environment, Chinese Academy of Sciences Xi’an 710075, China; Department of Environment Engineering, School of Energy and Power Engineering of Xi’an Jiaotong University; et al. (Tree-Ring Society, 2007-06)
    Two Chinese pine (Pinus tabulaeformis) tree-ring width chronologies up to 375 years long were used to reconstruct rainfall from February to early July for the Wu Dangzhao region and from February to mid-July for the La Madong region, Inner Mongolia, China. The predictor variables account for 44.3% and 42.7% of the variance in precipitation, respectively. Both historical records and two other tree-ring based precipitation reconstructions from the environmentally sensitive zone (the northern Helan Mountain range and Baiyinaobao) confirm our results. After applying a 10-year moving average, the trends of four tree-ring based precipitation reconstructions vary synchronously. Periods with below-normal precipitation occurred during the 1720s–1730s, 1740s–1750s, 1790s, early 1810s, late 1830s–1860s, 1880s–1910s, late 1920s–1930s and after the late 1960s–early 1970s. Periods with above-normal precipitation occurred in the 1760s to early 1770s, 1820s to early 1830s, 1870s–1880s, early 1920s, 1940s to early 1960s, and 1990s. The late 1920s period was the most severe drought over a broad area in north China in the last 375 years. In contrast, the wettest period was in the late 1990s.
  • Book Review: TRACE- Tree Rings in Archeaology, Climatology and Ecology Proceedings Series

    Leavitt, Steven W.; Laboratory of Tree-Ring Research (Tree-Ring Society, 2007-06)
  • In Memoriam- Bernhard Denneler (1963-2007)

    Bergeron, Yves; Tree-Ring Society (Tree-Ring Society, 2007-06)
  • Dendrochronology And Past Human Activity- A Review Of Advances Since 2000

    Čufar, Katarina; Department of Wood Science and Technology, University of Ljubljana (Tree-Ring Society, 2007-06)
    Since 2000, important advances have been made worldwide in the dendrochronology of wood associated with past human activity and cultural heritage. This review summarizes this recent progress in regions with a longstanding tradition of using tree-ring methods, such as Europe and the USA, as well as others such as Asia where developments have been particularly rapid in recent years. The oldest wood generally originates from archaeological sites and the largest amount of wood for research comes from historical structures such as monumental and vernacular architecture. In addition to construction wood, wooden doors, ceilings, furniture, objects of art (such as panel paintings and sculptures), Medieval books, musical instruments and boats can also be utilized. Dating is the first and crucial step of the research and is often difficult even in regions where dendrochronology has a long history of use. In addition to absolute dates, dendrochronology has provided extra information that has enhanced historical knowledge from other sources. Behavioral and environmental inferencing and dendroprovenancing are becoming major areas of research in regions with well-developed networks of reference chronologies and active cooperation among laboratories. The online Bibliography of Dendrochronology and information from conferences have been indispensable in this compilation, because much work related to dendrochronology in cultural heritage is still published in ‘‘gray’’ literature, making it difficult to access.
  • A Modified Increment Borer Handle For Coring In Locations With Obstruction

    Brown, Peter M.; Rocky Mountain Tree-Ring Research, Inc. (Tree-Ring Society, 2007-06)
    A simple modification to a standard increment borer handle is described that enhances use of the borer in situations where obstructions to the rotation of a normal handle prevents utilization of the full length of the borer. The modification, informally called the ‘‘Quad-B’’ (Brown’s bent boomerang borer handle), involves bending both sides of the handle to ~35–40° angles. Some potential uses of the modified handle are described.