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.
- Cause
- Extreme drought, frost, or injury suppressing growth
- Effect if undetected
- Undercounts tree age or misdates timber
- Detection method
- Crossdating with other samples from the same population
- Field
- Dendrochronology
Common questions
Why can't a missing ring be identified just by looking at a single sample in isolation?+
A single core or cross-section gives no independent way to know a year's growth was skipped entirely rather than simply thin. Crossdating against multiple trees from the same region, which share climate-driven ring-width patterns, reveals the gap because the pattern will appear to shift by one year at that point.
How does a missing ring affect forensic timber dating, such as dating a wooden artefact?+
If a missing ring goes uncorrected, the felling date calculated by counting rings inward from the bark will be too recent by at least one year, since a year of growth was never physically deposited to count, which can matter in cases where dating precision affects the conclusion.
Is a missing ring the same phenomenon as a false ring?+
No. A false ring is an extra, spurious ring-like structure formed within a single growth season, which can cause overcounting, while a missing ring is the absence of an expected annual ring, which causes undercounting. The two errors work in opposite directions and both require crossdating to catch.
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...