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Each tree ring contains an image of the time when the ring formed, projected onto the ring's size, structure, and composition. Tree rings thus are natural archives of past climates. While dendrochronologists have investigated the impact of climate on tree-ring growth by empirical-statistical methods, this volume presents a process-based model complementing previous approaches. Basic ideas concerning the physiology of tree growth and its control by environmental factors are treated, especially for conifers. The use of the model is illustrated by means of several examples from widely differing environments, and possible future directions for model development and application are discussed. The volume advances process understanding of the large-scale environmental control of wood growth. As forests are the main carbon sink on land, the results are of great importance for all global change studies.
Factors influencing the seasonal growth of trees * Tree-ring structure in conifers as an image of growth conditions * Seasonal cambium activity and production of new xylem cells * Radial cell enlargement * Cell wall thickening * Environmental control of xylem differentiation * Modeling external influence on xylem development * Simulation of tree-ring growth dynamics in varying and changing climates * Ecophysiological modeling of tree-ring growth * Epilogue * References * Subject Index.
Aus den Rezensionen: "! Im Gegensatz zu vielen dendrochronologischen Werken beschrankt sich das Buch nicht nur auf empirisch-statistische Methoden, um den Einfluss von Klima- und Umweltfaktoren auf die Zuwachszonen von speziell [sic] Koniferen zu interpretieren. Vielmehr versuchen die Autoren, vor allem prozess-basierte Erklarungen fur die Zusammenhange zwischen Klima bzw. Umwelt und Zuwachszonen zu liefern. ! Alles in allem gibt das Werk einen sehr guten Einblick in den aktuellen Kenntnisstand der behandelten Thematik und kann sowohl als Lehrbuch als auch als Nachschlagewerk Verwendung finden ..." (D. Uhl, in: Zentralblatt fur Geologie und Palaontologie Teil II, 2007, Issue 5-6)
