{
  "abstract": "Stable oxygen isotope dendrochronology has emerged as a ground-breaking technique for dating historic timbers when conventional tree-ring-width dendrochronology falls short. In the Euro-Atlantic region, thousands of timbers in historic buildings and archaeological sites from the Late Medieval and Early modern periods contain few tree rings or exhibit complacent growth (i.e., minimal year-to-year variation), making them undatable with conventional ring-width dendrochronology. Here, we present a 300-year-long annually-resolved δ18O reference chronology for the Eastern Netherlands-Northwest Germany region (TWR δ18O), covering the period 1300–1600 CE. We explore its correlations with other European δ18O chronologies, and its potential for dating short and complacent tree-ring series. We found that the TWR δ18O chronology exhibits strong coherence with independent δ18O records from Belgium and the UK, and weaker correlations with French and more continental chronologies. Our results demonstrate that δ18O dendrochronology can successfully date single timbers with as few as 30 rings when a local reference δ18O chronology is available. In the absence of such data, combining δ18O series from 3–5 coeval samples and extending the temporal coverage improves dating success through correlations with regional chronologies. These findings provide guidance for sampling strategies and the development of δ18O chronologies in the Euro-Atlantic region. The dating of currently undatable samples and their integration into dendrochronological repositories will enable a more accurate reconstruction and interpretation of past construction activities, timber trade, and forest management practices, ultimately transforming our understanding of post-medieval timber use and environmental history.",
  "abstract_shown": true,
  "affiliations": [
    "Naturalis Biodiversity Center, Leiden, The Netherlands",
    "School of Biosciences, Geography and Physics, Swansea University, Swansea, United Kingdom",
    "Van Daalen Dendrochronologie, Wijhe, The Netherlands",
    "Flanders Heritage Agency, Brussels, Belgium",
    "Laboratoire des Sciences du Climat et de l’Environnement, CEA, CNRS, UVSQ, Université Paris-Saclay, Gif-sur-Yvette, France",
    "Cultural Heritage Agency of The Netherlands, Amersfoort, The Netherlands"
  ],
  "article_type": "Research Article",
  "arxiv": null,
  "author_total": 8,
  "authors": [
    {
      "affs": [
        0
      ],
      "name": "Clara Rodríguez-Morata"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        1
      ],
      "name": "Darren Davies"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        2
      ],
      "name": "Neil J. Loader"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        3
      ],
      "name": "Danny McCarroll"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        4
      ],
      "name": "Sjoerd Van Daalen"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        5
      ],
      "name": "Kristof Haneca"
    },
    {
      "name": "Valerie Daux"
    },
    {
      "name": "Marta Domínguez-Delmás"
    }
  ],
  "bibtex": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/9zqbrjkj0ez46.bib",
  "cited_by": 0,
  "doi": "10.1371/journal.pone.0357031",
  "fulltext_url": null,
  "id": "9zqbrjkj0ez46",
  "issns": [
    "1932-6203"
  ],
  "landing_url": "https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0357031",
  "language": null,
  "licence": "CC-BY-4.0",
  "licence_label": "CC BY 4.0",
  "licence_source": "journal",
  "licence_url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/",
  "metadata_licence": null,
  "native_subjects": [
    [
      "openalex",
      "1902|Tree-ring climate responses"
    ],
    [
      "plos",
      "/Biology and life sciences/Agriculture/Agronomy/Plant products/Timber"
    ],
    [
      "plos",
      "/Biology and life sciences/Agriculture/Crop science/Plant products/Timber"
    ],
    [
      "plos",
      "/Biology and life sciences/Ecology/Paleoecology/Dendrochronology"
    ],
    [
      "plos",
      "/Biology and life sciences/Organisms/Eukaryota/Plants/Trees"
    ],
    [
      "plos",
      "/Biology and life sciences/Paleontology/Paleobiology/Paleoecology/Dendrochronology"
    ],
    [
      "plos",
      "/Biology and life sciences/Plant science/Plant anatomy/Wood"
    ],
    [
      "plos",
      "/Earth sciences/Paleontology/Paleobiology/Paleoecology/Dendrochronology"
    ],
    [
      "plos",
      "/Ecology and environmental sciences/Ecology/Paleoecology/Dendrochronology"
    ],
    [
      "plos",
      "/People and places/Geographical locations/Europe"
    ],
    [
      "plos",
      "/Physical sciences/Physics/Particle physics/Composite particles/Atoms/Isotopes"
    ],
    [
      "plos",
      "/Social sciences/Archaeology/Archaeological dating"
    ],
    [
      "plos",
      "/Social sciences/Archaeology/Historical archaeology"
    ]
  ],
  "openalex": "W7214098517",
  "pdf_url": "https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0357031&type=printable",
  "pmcid": null,
  "pmid": null,
  "published": "2026-09-23",
  "publisher": "Public Library of Science",
  "ris": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/9zqbrjkj0ez46.ris",
  "sources": [
    {
      "first_seen": "2026-10-30T12:17:43Z",
      "native_id": "10.1371/journal.pone.0357031",
      "source": "plos",
      "url": "https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0357031"
    }
  ],
  "subjects": [
    {
      "field": "biology",
      "origin": "plos:ecology",
      "subfield": "ecology"
    },
    {
      "field": "biology",
      "origin": "plos:paleobiology",
      "subfield": "evolutionary-biology"
    },
    {
      "field": "biology",
      "origin": "plos:plant science",
      "subfield": "plant-biology"
    }
  ],
  "title": "Advancing annually resolved oxygen isotope dendrochronology to overcome wood-dating limitations in the Euro-Atlantic region",
  "title_text": "Advancing annually resolved oxygen isotope dendrochronology to overcome wood-dating limitations in the Euro-Atlantic region",
  "type": "peer-reviewed",
  "updated_at": "2026-10-30T12:17:43Z",
  "url": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/9zqbrjkj0ez46",
  "venue": "PLOS One",
  "versions": []
}