Scientists hope ‘world’s loneliest tree’ will help answer climate questions

The solitaryliest tree in the world, the Sitka spruce on Campbell Island, has been in contact with a group of New Zealand researchers who believe it could help understand climate change.

The world's tallest tree is the Guinness World Record for the "remotest tree on the planet". The island is 700 kilometres south of New Zealand in the Southern Ocean. It is the only tree that grows around 222 km.

The Tree of Ténéré was said to be the most isolated tree in the world until it was killed by a driver in 1973.

The tree is believed to have been planted in New Zealand by the governor of the country.

Although it is commonly referred to as the world's loneliest tree, there is no universally recognised definition of what constitutes a tree.

Some scientists would be happy to see it gone. The tree can be used to understand what is happening in the Southern Ocean.

Half of the CO2 produced by burning fossil fuels and putting it into the atmosphere goes into the land and the other half goes into the ocean.

The Southern Ocean has taken up 10% of all of the emissions over the last 150 years.

The National Institute for Water and Atmospherics and the Deep South National Science Challenge are working together to understand what is happening to carbon in the southern ocean. The teams want to know if the carbon sinks will cause a big increase in global warming. Can these sinks be used to take up more carbon and reduce global warming?

There have been conflicting results from previous studies looking at the Southern Ocean's carbon capture and storage. Taking samples of the atmosphere is the best way to measure CO2 concentrations. It is limited by limitations.

It is not possible to collect air that was there in the past.

We came up with a way to use tree rings. Plants grow by taking carbon dioxide out of the air and using it to grow their structures and the carbon from the air ends up in the tree rings.

It is helpful when there is a lot of established trees, but they are rare in the southern ocean. Good data can be found in the southernmost tree the team could find. The rings are larger and it is easier to separate out and get a record from there.

The results of a 5mm core sample from the tree are still to be published.

The description may be seen by the beholder.

You have to walk through elephant seals and sea lions to get to the tree. The tree doesn't look lonely.