New research from James Cook University suggests studying tree rings in tropical parts of Queensland can give insight into the past 400 years of flood and drought, and help forecast these conditions in the future.
It had been thought the rapid growth of trees and the lack of defined seasons make studying tree rings in tropics unreliable as the rings do not grow annually.
However the study found trees to be producing annual rings formed during the wet-dry seasons, while also identifying that the isotope chemistry in some trees wobble on an annual cycle.
Read more at James Cook University