TRiDaS 1.1: The tree-ring data standard

Tree-ring research and collaboration are currently being hampered by the lack of a suitable data-transfer standard for both data and metadata. This paper highlights the issues currently being faced and proposes a solution that, if adopted by the global dendro community, will open up the possibility of exciting new research collaborations. The solution consists of a data model for dendrochronological data and metadata, and an eXtensible Markup Language (XML) schema as a technical vehicle to exchange this data and metadata. The technology and structure of the standard enable future versions to be developed that will satisfy evolving requirements whilst remaining backwards compatible. (C) 2009 Elsevier GmbH. All rights reserved.