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Published online 15 September 2006 | Nature | doi:10.1038/news060911-15
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Bright sparks reveal invisible tree rings
Calcium markers could aid climate studies in the tropics.
As every child knows, you can tell how old a tree is simply by counting its rings, which reflect the changing seasons. Now researchers have worked out a simple way to do the same for trees from the tropics, where there are no summers and winters to mark the passage of time.
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