Due to their worldwide distribution, trees have an extraordinary role in removing excessive amounts of CO2 released into the atmosphere by human activity. So far, however, no tool exists to precisely calculate the carbon dioxide uptake of trees over their whole lifetime. Using a decade-long sequence of annual growth rings from pine trees, scientists at the NMR Centre at Umeå University’s Chemical Biological Centre, (KBC) have introduced a highly advanced technique for tracking the carbon metabolism of plants and its environmental controls. This technique lays the foundation for much improved parameterizations of climate change and global vegetation models.