Missing ring
Definition
A year in which growth was so suppressed, by extreme drought, frost, or injury, that no visible ring was deposited. Missing rings cause undercounting errors if not detected and must be confirmed by crossdating with other samples from the same population.
Related terms
- Annual ring
- A single year's growth increment visible as a concentric band in a transverse wood section. In most temperate trees, each ring consists...
- Crossdating
- The matching of ring-width patterns between two or more samples to determine their relative or absolute temporal relationship. The master method of...
- Floating chronology
- A ring-width sequence whose pattern is internally consistent but whose absolute calendar position is unknown because it cannot yet be crossdated to...
- Master chronology
- A continuous, absolutely dated ring-width sequence built by overlapping many individual samples, living trees linked to old timbers and subfossil wood. Regional...
- Sapwood
- The outer living wood of a tree, typically lighter in colour than the dark heartwood. Species have characteristic sapwood ring counts (a...
Explained in
- Dendrochronology and Forensic Timber AnalysisA year in which growth was so suppressed, by extreme drought, frost, or injury, that no visible ring was deposited. Missing rings cause undercounting errors if...