Beyond tree-ring widths: Stable isotopes sharpen the focus on climate responses of temperate forest trees

Tree rings provide an indispensable tool for assessing a tree's response to variability in its environment, oftentimes also providing a means of reconstructing that variability beyond instrumental records. The wood that trees produce is laid down sequentially, creating an archive of temporally ordered material that is rich in physiological and environmental information. This is made all the more useful because trees are globally distributed, can live for thousands of years and in some cases remain intact long after they die.