Dating the age of an oak tree

Count the concentric growth rings circling the heartwood of a chopped log and you’ll know a tree’s age.It’s a fun fact, for sure, but tree-ring dating (technically known as dendrochronology) goes far beyond determining how old a tree is.

To do this, you need to multiply the diameter of the tree by its species-specific growth factor.Anything that affects a tree — precipitation, temperature, nutrients in the soil, fires, injuries — can show up in the rings." Wood typically grows season by season, adding a new layer a year.In this way, trees progressively build trunks strong enough to support their many branches and hold them upward toward the sun so leaves can undergo photosynthesis.Scientists have been studying trees for hundreds of years. Here are some methods scientists use to tell a tree's age. Another way to tell the age of some trees is to count the whorls around it.They can tell the age of the tree, the climate, floods, insect-damage and even if there was a forest fire by examining the trees. A whorl is the circular growth of branches in the same spot around the tree trunk.