Madagascar is home to seven species of baobab trees, of which six are found nowhere else on the planet. Many of the trees have been alive for well over 1,000 years. The ancient trees have become symbols of Madagascar itself. They’re also gifts to climate science.
Imagine these trees as filing cabinets for climate history. Every year a tree grows, it lays down a new ring, and locked inside that ring are chemical fingerprints that reveal how much rain fell that year.
These records could tell society what it needs to know about the climate history of Madagascar. But until now, this information was hidden in the trunks of the trees.
