8,000-Year-Old Tree Ring Diary Reveals Climate Changes

Created by scientists at Cambridge University, the world’s oldest tree-ring diary helps to map climate change. The calender was creates to document centuries-old climatic conditions using trees around the World. But, how they do that?

Trees are weather-sensitive and tree rings give clues to the rais, temperatures and even tsunamis that the tree witnessed throughout its lifetime. Professor Ulf Büntgen, says this technique recently revealed evidence that an ice age began in around the year of A.C. 536. “It was followed by a series of volcanic eruptions that triggered a very cold period of 100 to 120 years.” he continued.

Thanks to the revitalization of historical climates, scientist are able to analyze whether the recent global warming is unusual.

The team, based on the fact that tree rings are unique just like fingerprints, worls with volcano experts, historians and archaeologists to create the diary.

The team wants to explore how societies are affected by climate change and how these changes intersect with various disasters and mass migrations. 

Professor Büntgen, head of the tree rings unit of the University, said: “The biggest advantage of tree ring chronologies is their annual precise dating, so this allows us to make cross-comparisons to human history.”

“Trees are unique in the way they form each year an annual distinct ring... so this allows us to make these continuous chronologies.”

"By being able to map past climate changes over 1,000 or 2,000 years, we can ultimately improve modern predictions..”

Trees and samples from construction sites, medieval churches, lakes and peat bogs are being used for research. In addition, trees preserved for centuries are drawn by Crane from the Scottish lochs.

"We have material for Scotland going back 8,000 years," said Dr Rob Wilson, of the University of St Andrews.

"We've got lots of gaps at the moment... we have an 11th Century gap and then we've got a lot of material for the first millennium AD."

"[Rings can reveal] earthquakes, rock avalanches, snow avalanches, tsunamis... so one can be quite creative in the different aspects of environmental change you can study with tree rings."

The work of the scientists who can readthe tree rings and reveal what happened to the planet with evidence, is continuing. The researchers, who foresee by learning the past they will be able to calculate what might happen in the future, are searching for the mysteries of the future in the rings of trees that have been witnessing what has happened since the beginning of time.