Dendrochronology Lab

The purpose of this lab is to identify the age of a tree by determining the number of rings it holds. In this lab, we will also determine the climate of the given region from which the tree examples came.

One tree came from Palm Springs, California. Below is displayed a picture of a tree's tree rings cut down from there.

Based on my observations, the tree rings are not perfect for multiple reasons.The reason the outer rings are somewhat marred could possibly be because the saw claws of cutting at the beginning were not consistent and a little unstable. Possibly a reason for the inner rings being quite narrow may be be because there was a drought or something similar at this time; it is around the first years of its life where it may require more water and care.
By counting the tree rings, this tree is between 30 and 35 years old.

The second tree rings come from Macon, GA. Here is a picture.

By counting the dark tree rings, this tree was around 50-55 years old. As aforementioned, the reason for the marred, blended rings on the outer rings could be the teeth of the saw inconsistently cutting at the beginning. towards the core of the tree, the rings are very defined, meaning it had a healthy weather conditions growing up.

Climate Conditions

In this section, we will examine the different climate conditions starting back from 1980 and in intervals of 5 years. A chart below will show the data for both the Palm Springs and Macon temperatures dated back to the 1960s.

With this information, we can graph the data to deduct if there is a correlation between the rings thickness and their temperatures.

From this graph, we may conclude that there is a huge difference in temperatures between the two trees, obviously since they are located in two different climate conditions. However, there is not too much difference in their ring thickness, meaning temperature must not be a crucial factor in determining what gives tree rings their characteristics.

Below is a chart of comparing tree thickness to precipitation to see if there may be a correlation there.

Now, a graph will be made from this data to visually illustrate a correlation.

It is still apparent that there are differences in precipitation based on location of the two trees, but there is still no correlation with the tree rings' characteristics. Therefore, the tree rings may have their characteristics based on other climate conditions.

It is an interesting concept to ponder on what events have happened while the tree has been a live. Here are a few events that have happened during both trees lives.

These events can be visualized on the tree rings.

To conclude, there is a lot that can be learned from dendrochronology, including age and climates during certain time periods, which show how that affected that location at that time.