They discovered the world’s oldest living tree: 5,484 years old

A recent study by two Chilean scientists found that a specimen of the tree known as ‘Millennium Alenen’ or ‘Great Grandfather’ living in the Alenen Costero National Park in the La Unión (Chile) region would have one 5,484 years old. In light of this finding, Chile is now a oldest living tree in the worldThus, he surpassed the conical bristle pine known as ‘Methuselah’ (in the United States), whose age was 4,853.

The result of this analysis far exceeded the expectations of study co-authors Jonathan Barichivich and Antonio Lara, conducted in collaboration with institutions such as Alenen Corporation, Universidad Austral de Chile, and Conaf.

Jonathan Barichivich, a forest engineer and global ecology and climate researcher, who is also part of the entity known as “the guardians of ancient larch,” explained that the “Great Grandfather” study is part of a broader study aimed at exploring it. The functioning of forests of this species.

Measured larch is known as ‘Great Grandfather’ agencies


“In this framework, We got permission to work with old alder trees and to take samples very carefully and without damaging them. To study the age of trees, there are growth rings that are annual, you can count them and the age of the tree can be known, there is a sample up to the center, ”said the statements collected by Diario Austral Los Ríos.

Again, “in such giant and ancient trees, not all existing rings are counted, the first one because the hole we have (the tool to take the sample) is 90 centimeters and there is no longer a hole to reach the center of the tree. Ancient larch is more than four meters in diameter, so we need a hole larger than two meters to get to the center. But also, in general, very old trees rot in the center, so the rings are no longer there, and this is a complication for being able to estimate the total age of these trees,” the expert continued.

A Statistical Method

So how did they manage to get out with the tree? Barichivich, to overcome this obstacle “a statistical method to simulate growth in the portion we could not sample. At 90 centimeters it counts 2400 years and is only 43% of the tree’s radius. The method we designed takes into account all of the growth histories and how alenmeyer grows in all the populations that my colleague Antonio Lara and I sampled.”

The world’s largest tree is in Alenen Costero National Park. Alere Costero National Park


And he continued: “We are confident in our method; It does not matter to us whether it is the oldest in the world or not, it is important for us to show that it is a unique example. The method allows us to estimate the distribution of probabilities of epochs, and in the range of 3,500 to 6,000 years, there is an 80% probability that this tree is older than 5,000 years. this peak probability is 5,484 years, so that’s the most likely age. We expected her to be over 4,000 years old, but the 5,000 figure really surprised us.”

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Environment department contact address:[email protected]

Source: Informacion

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