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Radiocarbon dating of recent tree rings
| Samples being taken from Callitris tree, Snowy Mountains, Australia |
Researchers within the group have used bomb 14C recorded in recent tree rings across Australia and New Zealand to test whether these growth rings are annual.
This investigation focuses on Callitris because these widespread long-lived trees form visible growth rings, which can potentially be used as a bio-indicator of environmental and climatic changes for the past 200 years or more.
Project support
AINSE Grants 00/122, 03/090p, 07/014, 07/175, 09/047, 09/086 & 11/114. CERF Grant B0016193.
Project team members
Kathy Allen (School of Land and Environment, Melbourne Univ.), David Bowman (School of Plant Science, Univ. Tasmania), Quan Hua (ANSTO), Cath Lovelock (School of Biological Sciences, Univ. Queensland), Stuart Pearson (School of Physical, Environmental and Mathemaical Sciences, UNWS, Australian Defence FOrce Academy), Nadia Santini (School of Biological Sciences, Univ. Queensland) and Sam Wood (School of Plant Science, Univ. Tasmania).
Publications related to this project
Bowman, D.M.J.S., L.D. Prior, D. Tng, Q. Hua, and T.J. Brodribb (2011), Continental-scale climatic drivers of growth ring variability in an Australian conifer, Trees – Structure and Function, 25, 925-934.
Pearson, S., Q. Hua, K. Allen, and D.M.J.S. Bowman (2011), Validating putatively cross-dated Callitris tree-ring chronologies using bomb-pulse radiocarbon analysis, Australian Journal of Botany, 59, 7-17.
Lovelock, C.E., B. Sorrell, N. Hancock, Q. Hua, and A. Swales (2010), Mangrove forest and soil development on a rapidly accreting shore in New Zealand, Ecosystems, 13, 437-451.
Wood, S.W., Q. Hua, K.J. Allen, and D.M.J.S. Bowman (2010), Age and growth of a fire prone Tasmanian temperate old-growth forest stand dominated by Eucalyptus regnans, the world's tallest angiosperm, Forest Ecology and Management, 260, 438-447.
Hua, Q. (2009), Radiocarbon: A chronological tool for the recent past, Quaternary Geochronology, 4, 378-390. doi: 10.1016 / j.quageo 2009.03.06.
Abstracts related to this project
Hua, Q., D. Bowman, S. Pearson, and K. Allen, Validation of tree-ring ages of recent Australian Callitris by means of bomb radiocarbon, The 11th International Conference on AMS, 14-19 Sep 2008, Rome, Italy.
Pearson, S., E. Greentree, S. Harvey, Q. Hua, D. Bowman, D. McCullough, G. Medlin, and B. Triggs, Tree rings and rat nests What next?, Reconstructing Past Climates for Future Prediction Meeting, 27-28 Jun 2005, Canberra, Australia.
Hua, Q., Recent 14C as a chronological tool, OZPACs 2nd Meeting, 20-21 April 2006, Canberra, Australia