Scientists read centuries of history in tree rings
PLATTEVILLE, Wisconsin (Wisconsin State Journal ) — Some people use clocks and calendars to track time. Evan Larson and Christopher Underwood use trees.
Across a valley, they can recognize the contorted, reaching branches that distinguish an old oak from the more plentiful variety that sprung up around 1850 as European settlers moved into southwestern Wisconsin. A pencil-sized rod pulled from a tree trunk is like a weather almanac.
Larson and Underwood, both geographers at UW-Platteville, divine the history of the land from tree rings, a science known as dendrochronology used to reconstruct centuries of rainfall patterns across the Driftless region, records that underscore just how much wetter the region has become as the climate warms.