Cambridge University scientists create ancient tree ring diary

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Did the BBC just say in this report: ‘if the recent warming is unusual’? Whether tree ring analysis can improve predictions, as suggested, is an interesting question but open to debate.

The “longest, continuous tree ring-based diary” is being created by scientists at the University of Cambridge to help map climate change, reports BBC News.

The diary documents climatic conditions going back centuries, using trees from across the world.

Trees are weather-sensitive and their rings can give clues to rainfall, temperature and even tsunamis.

Prof Ulf Büntgen said the technique recently uncovered evidence of an ice age that started in precisely 536 AD.

It followed a cluster of volcanic eruptions that triggered a very cold period of 100 to 120 years.

By reconstructing historical climates, scientists can analyse if the recent warming is unusual.

Tree rings are as distinctive as fingerprints and the team is working with volcanologists, historians and archaeologists.

They want to discover how communities have been affected as changes in climate have coincided with plagues and mass migration.

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

“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.”

Continued here.