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What causes tree rings to grow unevenly?



Unevenly as in why isn’t the middle of all the rings in the center.

This entry was posted on Friday, April 29th, 2011 at 12:24 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

34 Responses to “What causes tree rings to grow unevenly?”

  1. Kaguya Kimimaro on April 29th, 2011 at 1:16 pm

    sometimes a year might be a bit rough, the tree might not be getting enough water or sunlight, or maybe the winter was a bit cold; the tree was having a rough time and so its growth got stunted, explaining the uneven growth rings

  2. how close the trees are together, if they are too crowded the rings will be irregular, as other trees are cut or die out the rings get more even, climate conditions also affect the growth of the tree, if the tree is leaning this will also affect the rings,

  3. Growth is determined by the amount of rainfall. Thin ring = dry year, thick ring = wet year.

  4. i think what you mean is there is more growth on one side than the other? this will be caused by the environmental factors -eg. if there is a wall, or another tree very close to the tree it will grow more on one side than the other, using the available space – a bit like square tomatoes that are grown in glass boxes. also light and wind will cause a tree to lean to one side or another so the growth will be more on one side.

  5. trees might look round they aint hense the rings arnt

  6. It was at one point but as the branches grow out the tree leans a little so the centre appears to shift each year. now have a look at species that grow rapidly straight up and you should find far more centred and concentric rings.

  7. Climate variations!

  8. Stress. Different years have different amounts of rainfall, etc. One year, a tree may receive plenty of rainfall and optimal growing conditions, and the next year suffer thru a severe drought. These extremes in conditions cause variations in the rings.

  9. dont know

  10. It means that it’s a bent tree!

  11. water, weather and nutrition conditions.

  12. definitely climatic conditions particularly the amount of rainfall in a given growing period will have an effect on growth, the more rainfall the more growth.

  13. The environment around them. Whether there was enough rainfall that year, or if it was a drought. Things like that.

  14. Does it depend on the rainfall in any given year…less rainfall narrower bands?

  15. its to do with wet and dry years, dry year cause closer rings, wet further apart

  16. Basically as others have said, if there has been more or less sunlight or more or less rain the tree will flourish unevenly, hence the centre of the ring is not always in the middle.
    Watched a programme on dendochronology some time back which dated trees from the number of rings plus they could tell what the weather conditions were like during its different growth years.

  17. Bad years & good years! Too much rain, not enough rain. Too much sun, or not enough. Winds not blowing as usual?

    I think it’s called climate mate, or “life” if trees were human…

  18. Dendrochronology means the measuring of time using trees – dendro = trees, and chronology = system of measuring time. Dendrochronology was recognized as an important source of information on age and climate as early as the 1700s in Europe and in the early 1800s in the United States.

    Reading the Rings
    Scientists can use the tree rings described above for reconstructing past climate because trees are good environmental indicators. They produce very small rings during years of drought and large rings during years of good growing conditions.

    By counting the rings from the middle of the trunk, and studying the width of the rings, scientists can reconstruct an approximate calendar of wet and dry years. Scientists assume that the weather affected ancient tree ring growth the same way it does today. Scientists can also date the occurrence and frequency of fires by finding scars that appear in the growth rings.

  19. Each tree ring is a record of the weather, soil and food conditions available during that year. By cutting down ancient trees, it is possible to built up an extremely accurate picture [record] of weather and other conditions during the life-time of the tree in question by studying it’s ‘rings’. These are nearly always uneven due to different weather in each year. Some years are exceptionally wet, while others may have long cold and/or dry spells. The rings are made thus by the weather and food supply and water supply etc.

    Try the links below : -

    YouTube – Tree Rings: Counting the Years of Global Warming
    While politicians dance around the rhetoric of the global warming issue, director
    Liz Smith takes us to the scientific front lines as researchers attempt to …
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vqicp4PvHrY – Cached

    YouTube – Carl Sagan on Astrology
    This based on counting tree rings, there goes the 4400 year old flood theory.
    … Join YouTube for a free account, or log in if you are already a member. …
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iunr4B4wfDA

  20. Climate, rainfall, drought, temparature, seasons, the environment where it grows, just about anything.

  21. Well it depends on the year if it was a good year and they got alot of sunlight and plenty of water they will have a thick ring for that year .But if they only got little sunlight and little water they will get a thin ring for that year.

  22. Has to do with water and sunshine that year or years.

  23. All to do with the weather conditions as sated by others. this gives the tree growth, so a wider gap between the rings. each ring is the winter season. a harder line (bark stain)
    if you count the rings back the widest rings were the best seasons for growth. right combo of light and rain. plenty of right answers here. good question

  24. dry and wet growing dry year =narrow growth ring wet year broad ring

  25. As others have answered it depends on the weather. In years with little rain the rings will be closer together, plenty of rain wider apart. Aslo polution will cause the rings to differ, or a natural happening like a volcano, or earthquake.
    Weather characteristics and the likely effect on the development of the tree-ring produced in that year by a living tree:-
    For a get explaination go to;
    http://www.tree-ring.co.uk/Tree-ring%20Dating_files/Tree-Ring%20Dating.htm

  26. do you go unevenly a tree is exposed to many elements through the course of its life especial weather so I can not grow the same it is a living thing and it trees were perfect it would be time to start worrying Dave

  27. HELEN LOOKING4 on April 30th, 2011 at 12:41 am

    Good weather years…growth.
    Bad weather years…..Almost no growth.
    Hence the rings are wide apart in the good times and close together in the poor times.

  28. Because the tree itself grows at an uneven rate.

  29. Hazel,
    The growth of the tree depends on many factors, such as temperature (available sunlight or shading), water availability, weather (hot or cold), stress for any reason (see above).

    Trees are really quite a mirror of their environment, if for instance one year there is a drought, this will cause the tree to suffer drought stress, it will not grow at all well, and may even lose its leaves early as a defensive reaction. This would cause the rings (two per year) to appear very close together, as the tree did not put on much girth that year.

    If it was a very damp year, with lots of rain in the spring, and not a very bright summer, but with lots of rain (sounds like the UK then!) The tree will have wide well spaced rings, as the tree put on lots of foliage, which it kept, it photosynthesised well and put on girth and height that year.
    If the tree grew up shaded and under competition on one side, that will cause it to grow on the lighter side to find available light (etiolation)

    Good luck

    JohnB

  30. The width of each band depends on the growing conditions that year . If good then the band is wide ,if bad thenband is narrow .By matching patterns it is possible to create a map of tree growth ovr long periods and thus date when a particular tree hasbeen felled . A similar phenomenon can be observed in the rings on fish scales

  31. The uneven growth shown in the rings could have been caused by a fallen tree leaning against the tree

  32. what makes tree rings grow unevenly?Trees sucks up water in the spring/ summer by the leaves and sunshine .All so minerals in the soil give the tree rings colour.Peter

  33. Dry weather can cause rings to grow unevenly,the rings can tell you the size of the tree.

  34. Climatic conditions determine the rings’ width. Also, the cold weather usually makes the rings uneven within itself.
    A ring that is narrower on one side of the tree than the other is usually indicative of the North side of the tree. That side grows slower than the South because of the colder weather. The amount of water and nutrition for a year is why some rings are wider than others. One ring develops each year for a tree.

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