The International Tree-Ring Data Bank: an enhanced global database serving the global scientific community

TLDR

The International Tree‑Ring Data Bank, founded in 1974, serves as a permanent, freely accessible repository for tree‑ring measurements, chronologies, and reconstructions from over 100 species contributed by scientists worldwide. The ITRDB aims to expand global coverage of its holdings and increase its visibility within the scientific community. The ITRDB is governed by an international advisory committee of eight dendrochronologists and offers an online forum and a library of tree‑ring analysis software. It currently hosts 3,275 chronologies and 2,804 measurement datasets from more than 1,500 sites contributed by 139 researchers worldwide.

Abstract

The International Tree-Ring Data Bank (ITRDB) was established in 1974 to serve as a permanent repository for basic tree-ring data (measurements, chronologies, and derived reconstructions) developed and contributed by scientists from around the world. Housed at the World Data Center-A (WDC-A) for Paleoclima tology at the National Geophysical Data Center in Boulder, Colorado, USA, the ITRDB currently contains 3275 tree-ring chronologies and 2804 tree-ring measurement data sets from over 1500 sites, contributed by 139 researchers worldwide. These data sets represent information from over 100 tree and shrub species. As part of the WDC system, the ITRDB makes its holdings freely available to all scientists. The ITRDB is administered by an international Advisory Committee consisting of eight dendrochronologists representing different subdisciplines in the tree-ring sciences. The ITRDB also provides two additional important services: the creation and management of the ITRDB Dendrochronology Forum on the Internet, and development and distribution of a collection of computer programs for tree-ring analyses known as the ITRDB Program Library. Future efforts of the ITRDB will focus on increasing the worldwide coverage of its database holdings, and to make the ITRDB a more visible component in the scientific community.