Dendrochronology has been applied around the world over decades to reconstruct historical geomorphological events and climatic conditions. Traditionally, this research has been conducted using trees (conifers as well as broad-leaved trees) but, in the last few decades, several shrub and dwarf shrub species have also been shown to be useful for dendrochronological purposes. This study assesses the potential of mountain avens (Dryas octopetala L.) to provide accurately dated information about past debris-flow events. The study site, the Marlt-Graben debris-fan, is located in South Tyrol (Italy). 119 shrubs from three debris-flow tracks were analyzed. The longest radius of each sample was measured and cross-dated to build two chronologies for each debris-flow track, one for each leveé. Correlations between these chronologies and precipitation and temperature data from five climate stations located in the proximity of the study site were calculated. The cross-dating procedure was complex, but a strict grouping of the samples, based on the specific leveés of the tracks, enabled the construction of mean chronologies for each of the individual slopes. Although the development of a mean chronology for the study area was unsuccessful, the cross-dated ages of the single shrubs allowed us to reconstruct debris-flow events by utilizing the minimum age method. The low climate correlations suggest that micro site conditions strongly influence the growth of this dwarf shrub. Although the results of this study suggest that Dryas octopetala may provide useful dendroecological information, additional information about its growth dynamics is required before this potential can be fully realized.

树木年代学已在世界范围内应用数十年，以重建历史地貌事件和气候条件。传统上，这项研究是使用树木（针叶树和阔叶树）进行的，但在最近的几十年中，还显示出几种灌木和矮灌木物种对于树轮年代学目的是有用的。这项研究评估了山林大道的可能性L.）提供有关过去泥石流事件的准确日期信息。研究地点是Marlt-Graben碎片风扇，位于南蒂罗尔（意大利）。分析了来自三个泥石流径道的119个灌木。测量每个样品的最长半径，并进行跨日期测量，以为每个泥石流轨道建立两个年代，每个堤坝建立一个年代。计算了这些时间序列与位于研究地点附近的五个气候站的降水量和温度数据之间的相关性。交叉测年的过程很复杂，但是根据铁轨的特定高度对样本进行严格的分组，可以为每个单独的坡度建立平均年表。尽管没有成功地为研究区域制定平均年表，单一灌木的交叉年龄使我们能够利用最小年龄法重建泥石流事件。较低的气候相关性表明，微地点条件严重影响了这种矮灌木的生长。尽管这项研究的结果表明八叶树可能提供有用的树状生态学信息，在充分发挥这种潜力之前，还需要有关其生长动力学的其他信息。