Multi-century humidity reconstructions from the southeastern Tibetan Plateau inferred from tree-ring δ18O

• Published in: Global and planetary change Vol. 149; pp. 26 - 35
• Main Authors: Wernicke, Jakob, Hochreuther, Philipp, Grießinger, Jussi, Zhu, Haifeng, Wang, Lily, Bräuning, Achim
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Elsevier B.V 01.02.2017
• Subjects: Little Ice Age; Southeastern Tibetan Plateau; Teleconnections; Tree-ring δ18O; Little Ice Age; Teleconnections; Tree-ring δ18O; Southeastern Tibetan Plateau
• ISSN: 0921-8181; 1872-6364
• DOI: 10.1016/j.gloplacha.2016.12.013

We present two new multi-century long tree-ring δ18O chronologies from the southeastern Tibetan Plateau. The longer chronology dates back to 1353CE, representing the longest annually resolved δ18O chronology in the region, covering 660years (1353–2012CE). Both chronologies show strong relations to summer season precipitation, relative humidity, and temperature. We applied linear transfer functions and developed a summer season precipitation and a summer season relative humidity reconstruction. Moisture conditions during the past six centuries were characterized by a more humid period during 1700–1850CE and a drying trend since the mid-19th century. Spatial correlations between the δ18O chronologies and gridded reanalysis data (ERA-20C) revealed strong regional and remote associations to west central Asian, northeastern Europe, and to the western equatorial Pacific. These findings imply a potential influence of (i) atmospheric wave trains emanating from the North Atlantic and (ii) equatorial Pacific sea surface temperatures on the moisture variability over southeastern Tibet. •We present two novel tree-ring δ18O chronologies covering 1353-2012 CE and 1592-2011 CE from the southeastern TP•We applied a linear transfer model for the reconstruction of summer season (June-August) precipitation and relative humidity•We found increased humidity conditions during the late Little Ice Age (LIA) and a distinct drying trend since post LIA•Correlation analysis revealed a strong westerly influence on the moisture variability of the southeastern TP