Question: How do you find out about climate change using tree rings?

Mary Gagen answered on 19 Jun 2020:

what a great question! Thank you for asking. Dendro (trees) climatology (finding out about the climate) is my science and it is the study of how we can find out what our climate was like in the past from looking at the patterns in the rings trees make in their trunks. In places where the climate has seasons (so not the equator) trees grow one ring per year and the width, wood density and chemistry of a ring relates to what the climate was like in that year. So in dendroclimatology we take core samples from a tree trunk and measure the rings to find out what the climate was like in all the year’s the tree has lived for. We do this again and again, measuring lots of trees at many sites in a region and that allows us to build up a picture of past climate. You can find out more about tree rings and climate at a live lesson on you tube here https://youtu.be/c0C9YwkfuBg