Dendroecological dating of geomorphic disturbance in trees

Abstract

The initial employment of tree rings in geomorphic studies was simply as a dating tool and only rarely were other environmental information and records of damage contained within the tree exploited. However, these annually resolved tree-ring records also preserve valuable archives of past geomorphic processes on timescales of decades to centuries. As many of these processes are significant natural hazards, understanding their distribution, timing and controls provides crucial information that can assist in the prediction, mitigation and defense against these hazards and their effects on society. This contribution aims at presenting a proposal on the types of growth disturbances to be included in future work focusing on geomorphic disturbance, the intensity of reactions, and on the minimum requirements needed for growth disturbances to be considered in event histories. We present possibilities and limitations of dendrogeomorphic applications in geomorphic research and propose a range of techniques and approaches that may become standard practice in the analysis and understanding of earth-surface processes and related natural hazards in the future.