LEARNING FROM THE WOOD SAMPLES IN ICS, TIRI, FIRI, VIRI, AND SIRI

Each of the laboratory intercomparisons (from ICS onwards) has included wood samples, many of them dendrochronologically dated. In the early years, as a result of the majority of laboratories being radiometric, these samples were typically blocks of 20-40 rings, but more recently (SIRI), they have been single ring samples. The sample ages have spanned background through to modern. In some intercomparisons, we have examined different wood pretreatment effects, in others the focus has been on background samples. In this paper, we illustrate what we have learned from these extensive intercomparisons involving wood samples and how the results contribute to the global IntCal effort.