Tree ring records as clues to climate change

Understanding a tree's response to climate is essential to estimate carbon sequestration and production potential, both parameters that support forest management strategies.

Although there are many techniques on different spatial scales that can be used for investigating forests, only few of them look at the inside of an individual tree. Nevertheless, knowing what happens inside a tree is necessary to unlock the valuable data that are archived in the tree and its rings.

What we use

We use X-ray Computed Tomography with the accompanying processing software. This is an imaging technique that allows for:

  • Fast imaging and processing of increment cores
  • Extracting pith-to-bark density profiles for carbon sequestration estimation
  • 3D tree ring analysis
  • Analysis up to the anatomical level

X-ray tomography

Unlocking data

X-ray Computed Tomography enables us to look at different spatial scales inside the tree and allows to construct quantitative, continuous time series of wood formation. Information that unravels tree growth and tree performance.

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