Assessing the age of a living tree is straightforward enough—just extract a core from the tree's circular trunk and count the number of lines in the core formed by the tree's annual growth rings.

But few people know that the rings in trees can tell us much more than just a tree’s age. And perhaps even fewer know that there is a field of science dedicated to the study of tree rings.

Trees are natural timekeepers, silently recording the passage of years in their rings, growth patterns, and changing foliage. Their annual rings, visible in cross-sections of trunks, tell stories ...

Because tree rings tend to grow wider in warmer, wetter years and thinner in drier, colder years, they act as a record of natural climate variability and offer a complementary approach to model ...

Researchers have used tree rings to track rainfall patterns on the Tibetan Plateau over the course of almost 3,500 years and found a link between major changes and the downfall of some of the most ...

Tree rings can reveal more than just a tree's age. The basis of dendrochronology lies in a tree's unique pattern of growth rings. The rings form a kind of fingerprint—actually, with its ...