Trees don't all record atmospheric radiocarbon equally in their annual rings — how a tree stores and uses carbon sugars before building wood can blur or delay the chemical signal, meaning the same year's air chemistry may show up differently across species and individuals.
1
Significant variability in radiocarbon signals exists between individual tree samples even when measuring the same atmospheric event, limiting the precision of tree-ring-based dating.
2
The lag between when a tree captures carbon through photosynthesis and when it actually incorporates that carbon into wood — mediated by nonstructural carbohydrate storage — is a key source of signal blurring in tree rings.
3
Phenology of carbon uptake and wood formation timing varies by species and interacts with stored carbohydrate use, meaning no single tree can be assumed to be a perfectly faithful recorder of annual atmospheric radiocarbon.
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