History of Tree-Ring Research February 7

Theophrastus of Erusus Leonardo da Vinci Henri-Louis Duhamel du Monceau Charles Babbage Scientists That Have Explored Tree Rings

Twining, A.C On the growth of timber. American Journal of Science and Arts 24: “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 Professor of Forestry Sciences at the University of Berlin “ On the Development of Annual Rings in Woody Plants.” , in Uber die Entwicklung des Jahresringes der Holzpflanzen Botanist interested in forest growth = silviculture Robert Hartig Professor at Forest Academy, Eberswalde Germany

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

Andrew E. Douglass ( )

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

Douglass in Storeroom Laboratory of Tree-Ring Research Tucson, Arizona 1940

Florence Hawley

Bruno Huber (1899 – 1969)

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)