Crossdating Juniperus procera from North Gondar, Ethiopia

Tommy H.G. Wils, Iain Robertson, Zewdu Eshetu, Ramzi Touchan, Ute Sass-Klaassen, Marcin Koprowski

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

29 Scopus citations

Abstract

The application of dendrochronology in (sub)tropical regions has been limited by the difficulty in finding trees with distinct annual rings that can be crossdated. Here, we report successful crossdating of Juniperus procera trees from North Gondar, Ethiopia. The trees form annual rings in response to a unimodal rainfall regime. The selection of mesic locations ensured that the trees did not respond to intra-seasonal weather anomalies. Crossdating was achieved by comparison of the wood anatomy directly on the surface of the core samples and purpose-adapted skeleton plotting. Wood-anatomical anomalies, such as false and indistinct rings, were regarded as potentially replicated features and used in crossdating. COFECHA yielded site-specific mean series inter-correlations between 0.52 and 0.59. AMS radiocarbon dating during the bomb era indicated that dating uncertainty is ±1 year.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)71-82
Number of pages12
JournalTrees - Structure and Function
Volume25
Issue number1
DOIs
StatePublished - Feb 2011

Keywords

  • AMS radiocarbon dating
  • Ring formation
  • Sub-Saharan Africa
  • Tree rings
  • Tropical dendrochronology
  • Wood anatomy

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Forestry
  • Physiology
  • Ecology
  • Plant Science

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