The online journal of discovery in the Life, Earth, Marine and Environmental sciences at Western Washington University

The hidden climate secrets of bristlecone pines, the world's longest-lived organisms

Posted Fri, 06/19/2009 - 17:33 by GAIA

WWU Assistant Professor of Environmental Science Andy Bunn, below, and his students are researching how climate data - records of historic climate change - might be found in the rings of the world's longest-lived organisms, California's bristlecone pines, which can live to be 5,000 years old. Seeing how historic climate change has affected these trees can help us understand what the effects will be of today's modern, accelerated climate-change cycles.

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The hidden climate secrets of bristlecone pines, the world's longest-lived organ

"We do not inherit the earth from our ancestors, we borrow it from our children."
- Native American proverb