Dendroclimatic reconstruction of temperature in the eastern Qilian Mountains, northwestern China

Climate Research

Xiaohua Gou¹  Fen Zhang¹  Yang Deng¹  Meixue Yang¹  Jin Li¹  Linlin Gao¹ 

关键词: Tree-ring;    Temperature reconstruction;    Warming trend;    Picea crassifolia;    Northwest China;   

DOI  :  10.3354/cr01271

来源: Inter-Research Science Publishing

【 摘 要 】

ABSTRACT: Understanding the extent to which climate has varied in the past is a prerequisite to assessing current trends. In this study, we present a 225 yr tree-ring width record of Qinghai spruce Picea crassifolia from a mesic site in the eastern Qilian Mountains of northwest China. This tree-ring record showed significant positive correlations (p < 0.05) with temperature for most months from the preceding May to the current September, but none with precipitation or the Palmer Drought Severity Index. Based on the correlation relationships, we developed a regression model to reconstruct the average July temperatures over the period AD 1785-2009, which accounted for 45% of the observed temperature variation during the calibration period (1957-2009). This is the first tree-ring based temperature reconstruction in the eastern Qilian Mountains. The reconstruction indicated a warming trend that began around 1900 and continued through the late 20th century. Eight of the 10 warmest years were recorded during the period 1990-2009. The longest cool period occurred in 1894-1916. Comparisons of our reconstruction with other independent tree-ring based temperature reconstructions from the northeastern Tibetan Plateau suggest coherent variance patterns in these warm season temperature reconstructions regardless of the positive or negative correlation relationships between tree-ring records and temperatures. The results of comparisons also indicated that the warm season temperature variances lag behind the winter temperature variability by about 20 yr in this region.

【 授权许可】

Unknown