Applying an Edit Distance to the Matching of Tree Ring Sequences in Dendrochronology

In dendrochronology wood samples are dated according to the tree rings they contain. The dating process consists of comparing the sequence of tree ring widths in the sample to a dated master sequence. Assuming that a tree forms exactly one ring per year a simple sliding algorithm solves this matching task. But sometimes a tree produces no ring or even two rings in a year. If a sample sequence contains this kind of inconsistencies it cannot be dated correctly by the simple sliding algorithm. We therefore introduce a O(α2mn+α4(m+n)) algorithm for dating such a sample sequence against an error-free master sequence, where n and m are the lengths of the sequences. Our algorithm takes into account that the sample might contain up to α missing or double rings and suggests possible positions for these kind of inconsistencies. This is done by employing an edit distance as the distance measure.  2003 Published by Elsevier B.V.