“Blue Rings" in paleoclimate reconstruction and beyond

'Blue Rings' are an anatomical anomaly found in conifers characterized by incomplete cell wall lignification, visible in safranin-Astrablue stained anatomical thin sections (Piermattei et al. 2015). This talk will guide you through a journey from the accidental discovery of 'Blue Rings', to the most recent application of their detection and enumeration in dendrochronology, forest ecology, and palaeoclimatology. The significance of the first millennium-long 'Blue Ring' chronology in detecting post-cooling volcanic eruptions will be discussed.