Tree-ring series of oak, from both living trees (Quercus petraea and Q. robur) and historic timbers in southeastern Slovenia were assembled into a 548-year regional chronology spanning the period A.D. 1456–2003. It is currently the longest and the most replicated oak chronology in this part of Europe located at the transition between Mediterranean, Alpine and continental climatic influence. The chronology correlated significantly with regional and local chronologies up to 700 km away in Austria, Hungary, Serbia, Czech Republic and southern Germany. It also showed good “heteroconnection”, i.e. agreement with chronologies of beech (Fagus sylvatica), ash (Fraxinus excelsior) and silver fir (Abies alba) in Slovenia. A preliminary dendroclimatic analysis shows that precipitation and temperature in June accounted for a high amount of variance (r² = 0.51) in the tree-ring widths. The chronology thus contains considerable potential as a climate archive. We also present its use as a tool for the dating of wooden objects of the cultural heritage. Moreover, the chronology can be a point of reference for building tree-ring chronologies in neighboring regions.

Dendrochronology studies in Atlantic Canada are rare partly because old-growth forests are scarce making it difficult to establish multiple-century tree-ring chronologies. One approach to overcome this problem is to use tree-ring records found in the wood of historical structures. For our study, the Sinclair Inn in Annapolis Royal, Nova Scotia, was selected for a dendroarchaeological assessment because of its rich and complex history: it resulted from the merging of two early 18^th Century houses (the Soullard and Skene houses). To date the Sinclair Inn, three other historical structures of a younger age were used to establish an annual ring record in lieu of old-growth forest data. Red spruce (Picea rubens), a dominant tree species in the Maritimes, was the most prominent wood found in the structures and allowed for the creation of a regional red spruce reference chronology extending far enough into the past to cover the supposed period of construction of the Sinclair Inn. Crossdating results indicate cutting dates of 1709 and 1710 for the Skene and Soullard houses, respectively, and 1769 for the inn itself. In the process of dating the structure, a ∼200-year long regional floating red spruce chronology (1591–1789) was developed that will further help future dendrochronological investigations in the Maritimes.

Sixty individual ring-width series of oak (Quercus robur L.) from six sites in the northwestern Iberian Peninsula, ranging from 50 to 120 years, were grouped using hierarchical cluster analysis with different types of distance measures. Euclidean distances as well as other linkage distances based on statistics used to crossdate tree-ring series (Gleichläufigkeit and coefficient of correlation with its corresponding t-value) were compared. In addition, a new distance measure based on a corrected inversion of the Student's t is proposed in the present paper, which takes into consideration the number of years used for series comparison. The Euclidean distances, commonly used in ecological analyses, inefficiently identified homogeneous units of trees based on their ring-width patterns. Among crossdating statistics, the correlation coefficient was more effective than Gleichläufigkeit, but the most satisfactory results were obtained when 1/t was used as distance measure. Finally, these methods of cluster analysis have been implemented into a computer program for future use of the dendrochronological community.

Trace element mobility in bald cypress (Taxodium distichum) was investigated for a suite of elements using cores from century-old trees from a wetland in Humphreys County, Mississippi. Element mobility was determined by comparing the dendrochemistry of decadal increments over the life span of a tree, and by comparing increments of the same age collected from the same tree during two different seasons. Variability within growth increments at the time of sampling was evaluated by comparing cores from the same tree collected at three points around the bole. Of 42 elements analyzed, eight were found above detection limits (As, Ca, K, Mg, Mn, Na, P, Zn). Clear evidence of translocation of P and Mn to the sapwood and K, Mg, and Na to the heartwood was observed. Ca and Zn were found with higher average concentrations in the sapwood, though evidence of translocation to the sapwood was equivocal. Arsenic did not vary significantly through any individual core. Variation in concentration was not found to be significant for any element with respect to year of sampling, season, location in the wetland, or position around the bole. With the exception of As, variation was significant with respect to increment age (decade) and location within the heartwood or sapwood.

Recent research has challenged the long-standing hypothesis that forests in the Upper Midwest of the United States developed during wetter periods and retreated during dry periods. We explored this debate by examining patterns of tree establishment on an oak savanna in east-central Minnesota within the context of variable moisture availability and fire suppression. We used superposed epoch analyses (SEA) to evaluate the mean moisture conditions for a 21-year window surrounding tree establishment dates. Before effective fire suppression (1809–1939), 24 of 42 trees with pith dates (62%) grew to 30-cm height during dry years (Palmer Drought Severity Index < −1), versus only 5 of 42 (12%) that established in wet years (PDSI > 1). Significantly more trees established during dry periods (negative PDSI values) than would be expected with the proportion of wet-to-dry years (χ²  =  10.738, df  =  1, p-value  =  0.001). Twenty of the complete sample of 74 trees with pith dates (27%) established during drought in the 1930s. We hypothesize that dry conditions limited plant productivity, which in turn decreased competition between grasses and tree seedlings and reduced rates of accumulation of fine fuels, enabling seedlings to grow tall enough to resist subsequent fires. We recommend SEA as a methodological approach to compare historical climate conditions with the timing of regeneration success in other regions of forest expansion.

Increment cores are invaluable for assessing tree attributes such as inside bark diameter, radial growth, and sapwood area. However, because trees accrue growth and sapwood unevenly around their pith, tree attributes derived from one increment core may not provide sufficient precision for forest management/research activities. To assess the variability in a tree's inside bark radius, sapwood radius, and 10-year radial growth estimated by tree cores, two increment cores at 90 degree angles were collected from ponderosa pine (Pinus ponderosa) trees in eastern Montana (n  =  2,156). Paired core measurements varied substantially with 13% mean difference for inside bark radius, 19% mean difference for sapwood radius, and 23% mean difference for estimates of radial increment. Furthermore, decreasing crown ratio, decreasing diameter, and increasing site slope were all found to increase differences in estimates derived from paired cores. Whether for management or research purposes, the number of cores that should collected per tree depend on a stand's susceptibility to reaction wood, required measurement precision, and budgetary constraints.

Our objective is to report mortality rates for ponderosa pine trees in Oregon ten to eleven years after removing a fire-scarred partial cross-section from them, and five years after an initial survey of post-sampling mortality. We surveyed 138 live trees from which we removed fire-scarred partial cross-sections in 1994/95 and 387 similarly sized, unsampled neighbor trees of the same species. These trees were from 78 plots distributed over about 5,000 ha at two sites in northeastern Oregon. The annual mortality rate for sectioned trees from 1994/95 to 2005 was 3.6% compared to 2.1% for the neighbor trees. However, many of the trees that died between 2000 and 2005 were likely killed by two prescribed fires at one of the sites. Excluding all trees in the plots burned by these fires (regardless of whether they died or not), the annual mortality rate for sectioned trees was 1.4% (identical to the rate from 1994/95 to 2000) compared to 1.0% for neighbor trees. During these fires, a greater proportion of sectioned trees died than did catfaced neighbor trees (80% versus 64%) but the difference was not significant.