In the article Reading Between the Tree Rings by Kevin Anchukaitis. We learn that tree rings don’t just tell us how old the tree is but that they indicate the rate at which the tree grew. If the rings are close together than the growth those years was small and when the rings are more then the growth was more rapid those years. The branch of science that stud dies tree rings is called Dendrochronology. From studying the different rates of growth we can pin point when droughts occurred and maybe even times of irregular heat or cold. We have even learned about some droughts in north America and Asia that lasted for decades and probably caused the fall of whole civilizations.
Studying these rings gives us great insight into the past. The data the scientist are collecting not only tells us about past climate patterns but may help us to predict future weather patterns like droughts as the writer says “Knowing about past climate can allow us to predict its range of possible behavior in the future”. If this were true this would greatly impact every human for we would be able to prepare for times of droughts or take advantage of times of great rainfall. But studying these rings is not an easy task as is stated in the article ”Teasing out climate patterns from tree rings requires a complex understanding of statistics, biology and climatology".
This article was interesting and I learned something from it. I though the article was well written and easy to follow. I also thought the pictures that went along with this article were interesting but not the most appropriate. I would of liked to see an example of a drought that they pinpointed using the tree ring method overall i would recommend this article to anyone looking for an interesting read.
http://scientistatwork.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/03/13/reading-between-the-tree-rings/?ref=science
My classmate, Matthias, has done a fantastic job writing a review for the article, “Reading between the Tree Rings,” by Kevin Anchukaitis. Matthias nicely summarized the whole article in his first paragraph by explaining what details tree rings can unfold about our world. He also clearly stated that the study of tree rings is called dendrochronology. Matthias also used some great quotes from the article, which made his review very detailed with evidence. In addition, Matthias did a good job linking dendrochronology to our world today. He believes that if knowing about past climate, people can foresee its range of possible behavior in the future; as a result, people would be able to prepare for times of drought and violent disasters.
ReplyDeleteAlthough Matthias’ review was detailed, clear, and to the point, Matthias should have talked about Kevin Anchukaitis’ journey to Guatemala. Kevin Anchukaitis and his colleagues from the University of Denver and the Universidad del Valle in Guatemala, are training Guatemalan scientists and students to look for a new species of trees, whose rings may contain information about Guatemala’s environmental past. They will also be scouting for older trees on one of the highest points in Mesoamerica. This plan is necessary because Anchukaitis wants to verify his theory that tree rings indicate whether droughts are part of natural variability or if it portends to something about climate change. Matthias could have also explained Kevin Anchukaitis’ photographs on his article.
This article was very interesting and educational. I never thought about the importance of tree rings. It surprised me that tree rings could pin point the occurrences of droughts and other natural disasters. Also, tree rings could tell us about some droughts that took place in North America and Asia that lasted for decades and might have caused major civilizations to decline and eventually fall.
Just completing my classmates review on the NY Times article, “Reading Between the Tree Rings”, I think that Matthias did a great job summarizing and presenting an already great article. One thing I think he presented well is the main idea of the article and exactly what it means. His straight forwardness and clarity really made it simple to read and understand. Another thing I think Matthias did excellently is the incorporation of modern day uses of the study. Sure the study was interesting enough to begin with but as Matthias explained to numerous uses branching from this field of science, it really helps the reader see the true potential behind it. A final thing I think Matthias did well is the flawless integration of quotes from the original article. This really pulled together his summary and his explanation of the tree studies purposes. Also this really brought the reader back to the original article, which was a nice touch.
ReplyDeleteAlthough so many aspects of the review were carried out beautifully, I do feel as if they’re a few things that could have been improved upon. Firstly, I do think that Matthias could have gone into greater depth on what issues and tribulations, dendrochronologists stumble upon during their investigations of trees and their pasts. There was a healthy amount of information in the original article on that topic and it would have been nice if he took note of that. Additionally, I also think that Matthias could have provided a greater background cover of the man behind the study of dendrochronology. He seems to play a significant role in this article and behind the whole study of trees in general. His recognition only seemed fair.
Overall, Matthias did an excellent job summarizing this great article and it really opened me up to ideas that were completely new to me. Specifically, I did know that tree rings were used to tell the age of trees but I had absolutely no idea that tree rings could be utilized for so much more in depth and specific information. This was a great article to read and I think Matthias did an admirable job reviewing it.
I read the review "Reading Between the Tree Rings" by my classmate, Matthias Ribka. He is reviewing the article "Reading Between the Tree Rings" by Kevin Anchukaitis. I enjoyed how Matthias gave a us a good overview of what Dendrochronology is, and what each tree ring actually can tell us. The fact that Matthias was straightforward and to the point made this article very clear and concise. I also like how Matthias kept referring back to the article and used quotes from the article as evidence. Matthias continued to make it clear for the reader and i enjoyed this a lot.
ReplyDeleteAlthough Matthias did do a great job on this review of Kevin Anchukaitis's article, i think that there could be a few tweaks in his writing. I would have liked this article if I could have heard about the methodology in which the scientists use to examine the tree rings. Maybe Matthias could have talked about specific tools or the process in which scientists find a tree and notice that there was a drought or a rainy period. Maybe Matthias could have also talked about the dendrochronologists and their roles in science. Could their study help us find out more on climate patterns or environmental issues?
I did enjoy reading Matthias's review and i think he did an excellent job getting the main idea of the article. I was really not aware that the study of tree rings was a totally new wing of science. This really opened my eyes to new ways of studying nature and i look at nature in a different way. This article and review was fun to read and I think Matthias did a great job.
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ReplyDeleteMy peer, Matthias Ribka, did a really great job in his summary and subsequent discussion of the article "Reading Between the Tree Rings". The first thing I believe Matthias did really well, was explain particular terms that have to do with the study of tree rings. Had he not explained what the word Dendrochronology meant to someone such as myself, who does not know a great deal about trees, I would have been completely lost. The second thing Matthias did very well, was explain the effects of study of trees. He made the claim that finding out about trees and droughts could help us figure out why civilizations fell. This was great thinking on Matthias' part, and something I would not have looked into myself. Lastly, Matthias did a great job of summarizing the article, and gave clear and concise summary of major points in the article.
ReplyDeleteThough Matthias did a great job summarizing the article, there were a couple of things he could have done better. First, was summarizing the effects this could have on the future. While Matthias talked about the past, he didn’t talk about possible outcomes form ring formation habits in the future. I wished he had talked about why this sort of science is useful, just a little bit more. Secondly, while Matthias' summary is clear concise, his opinion paragraph is a little bit curt in it's execution, and I fail to pick up on why Matthias is interested in developments in Dendrochronology.
Finally, I believe Matthias did a fantastic job reviewing this article and giving his opinion on things. I was truly shocked by the amount of depth and information within tree rings, and was truly amazed at how the rings of tree indicate age, and give us insight into our past.
Matthias did a great job over reviewing ‘Reading Between Three Rings.’ It was great that he included many quotes from the article, to help explain what each tree ring can tell us using Dendrochronology. It was good that he included his views on the article.
ReplyDeleteEven though the article was reviewed very well I think that he could have improved the review by mentioning Kevin Annchukaitis, and his journey to Guatemala. Matthias could have also included the outcomes from ring formation.
I new that we could tell how old trees are by how many rings there are but I did not know that they indicated the rate at which the tree grows. I found this article interesting.
I thought that Matthias did a great job of reviewing the article, Reading Between the Tree Rings by Kevin Anchukaitis. In the very beginning of Matthias’ review he was able to clearly and concisely state what topic the article addressed. It is very hard to straightforwardly summarize the ideas of an entire article into one or two sentences. Matthias was able to do this and as a result, I knew exactly what I would be reading about. Furthermore, I liked how Matthias defined any terms that were unusual and explained different scientific processes. For example, he wrote, “The branch of science that studies tree rings is called Dendrochronology.” Lastly, I liked his use of quotes from the article as evidence. These quotes made the review even stronger and helped me understand the topic on a better level.
ReplyDeleteAlthough Matthias did an excellent job of reviewing this article there were some aspects of the review that he could refine or work on. One thing that I thought that he could improve on is his second paragraph. I felt like some of the information given in this paragraph could have been in the first paragraph because it was more fact based, rather than opinion based. For example he wrote, “But studying these rings is not an easy task as is stated in the article ‘Teasing out climate patterns from tree rings requires a complex understanding of statistics, biology and climatology.’” This would have worked better in the first paragraph. Moreover, there were many grammatical errors which took away from the fluidity of the review. For a couple sentences I was distracted by the grammatical errors and as a result it was harder to read his review and understand it fully.
I learned a lot from Matthias’ review and the topic really interested me. For instance, I never knew that the distance between the rings on a tree could tell us about droughts and temperatures from the past.