Tree-ring reconstruction of summer temperature for A.D. 1475–2003 in the central Hengduan Mountains, Northwestern Yunnan, China

• Published in: Climatic change Vol. 110; no. 1-2; pp. 455 - 467
• Main Authors: Li, Zong-Shan, Zhang, Qi-Bin, Ma, Keping
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Dordrecht Springer Netherlands 01.01.2012; Springer; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Atmospheric Sciences; China; Chronology; Climate; Climate change; Climate Change/Climate Change Impacts; Climate variability; climatic factors; Climatology. Bioclimatology. Climate change; Constraining; Earth and Environmental Science; Earth Sciences; Earth, ocean, space; Exact sciences and technology; External geophysics; Glaciers; growth rings; Meteorology; Mountains; Paleoclimate; Paleoclimate science; Picea; Plant growth; Precipitation; Reconstruction; Summer; Tasks; Temperature; Trees; variance; Yunnan China; Far East; Asia; China; Tibetan Plateau; Tree Ring; Hengduan Mountain; Pacific Decadal Oscillation; Qilian Mountain; Dendroclimatology; Historical reconstruction; mountains; gymnosperms; Century 19th; Plantae; Regional scope; Century 17th; Summer; Century 18th; climate variability; Century 15th; Long term variation; Century 16th; Century 20th; Atmospheric temperature; Coniferales; Spermatophyta; tree rings
• DOI: 10.1007/s10584-011-0111-z
• ISSN: 0165-0009

Development of long tree-ring records is an important task in paleoclimate studies. Here we presented a five-century long reconstruction of summer (June to August) temperature based on a tree ring-width chronology of Picea brachytyla var. complanata originating from the Hengduan Mountains of China. Climate-growth response analysis showed that summer temperature was the main climatic factor limiting tree-ring growth in the study area. The reconstructed summer temperature accounted for 47.6% of the variance in actual temperature during their common period A.D. 1958–2002. Analysis of the temperature reconstruction showed that major warm periods occurred in the A.D. 1710s–1750s, 1850s, 1920s–1950s and 1990s to present, whereas cold intervals occurred in the A.D. 1630s–1680s, 1790s–1800s, 1860s–1880s and 1950s–1980s, respectively. The low-frequency variation of the reconstruction agreed fairly well with tree-ring reconstructed temperature from nearby regions and with records of glacier fluctuations in the surrounding high mountains, suggesting that our reconstructed summer temperature was reliable, and could aid in the evaluation of regional climate variability.