If a tree grows no ring and no one is around: how scientists deal with missing tree rings

Dan Li ()
Additional contact information
Dan Li: Indiana University

Climatic Change, 2022, vol. 174, issue 1, No 6, 19 pages

Abstract: Abstract Responding to a discrepancy between dendro-reconstruction and climate model during large volcano eruptions, scientists have been debating a missing tree ring (MTR) hypothesis—trees missing an annual ring at a large scale due to extreme cooling. Although both parties claim victory, their arguments are shown to be compromised in our analysis. On the one hand, one party’s argument based on the rarity of missing rings in current data cannot serve as evidence against the MTR because data collection methods already assume the MTR to be impossible; on the other, the other party’s hypothesis testing cannot support the MTR because it merely shows that data in volcanic years are less certain, which is known. Lastly, our analysis highlights a current knowledge gap in tree growth in extreme conditions and thus we urge scientists to perform natural and interventional experiments to understand tree growth limitations. Filling this gap will enhance dendro-reconstructions.

Keywords: Tree ring; Missing tree ring; Dendro-reconstruction; Proxy data; Model-data discrepancy; Tree growth limitation; Logic of research questions (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s10584-022-03424-w Abstract (text/html)
Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:spr:climat:v:174:y:2022:i:1:d:10.1007_s10584-022-03424-w

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.springer.com/economics/journal/10584

DOI: 10.1007/s10584-022-03424-w

Access Statistics for this article

Climatic Change is currently edited by M. Oppenheimer and G. Yohe

More articles in Climatic Change from Springer
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().