In the Circle of Ancient Trees Our Oldest Trees and the Stories They Tell

About this book

In the growth rings of every tree are ingrained and encrypted the stories of the tree, its environment and the changes through which it has lived. Growing archives of tree-ring samples allow us to read and decode these natural timelines in ever greater detail. In the Circle of Ancient Trees narrates the stories of ten ancient trees, considering why they grew where they grew; how they reflect their habitat; and the events to which they bore witness. Valerie Trouet curates chapter essays by ecologists with specialist knowledge of each tree, exploring how human and environmental history share common roots, while drilling down into the ecology, persistence and resilience of each species. Illustrated with commissioned wood-engravings and tree-ring infographics that visualise each tree's chronology and geography, In the Circle of Ancient Trees uses circular narratives – beginning and ending with the tree's relationship to its location and environment – that consider what lessons for our future might be discovered in our planet's past.

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Biography

Valerie Trouet is a professor in the Laboratory of Tree-Ring Research at the University of Arizona. She is a dendroclimatologist, using tree rings to study the climate of the past and how it has influenced ecosystems and human history. In 2023, she was appointed the inaugural scientific director of the Federal Center of Expertise on Climate in Belgium. Professor Trouet is the author of Tree Story (Johns Hopkins), the winner of the World Wide Fund's 2020 Jan Wolkers Prize, and the Gold Winner of the 2020 Foreword INDIES Award in Ecology & Environment.