Oxygen isotope signatures preserved in tree ring cellulose as a proxy for April–September precipitation in Fujian, the subtropical region of southeast China

Abstract

A tree ring cellulose oxygen isotope (δ18O) chronology for the period 1870–2011 was established using samples from four Fokienia hodginsii trees with the aim of exploring the potential to use tree ring δ18O records to reconstruct climatic variations in Fujian, a subtropical region of southeast China. We believe that this is the first tree ring δ18O chronology from this area. Response analysis revealed that tree ring δ18O is significantly correlated with precipitation between April and September, relative humidity between August and October, and the Palmer drought severity index between April and October. Our δ18O chronology accounts for 37.4% (24.6%) of actual variation in precipitation between April and September during the period from 1951 to 2011 (1901 to 2011). Spatial correlation analysis revealed that tree ring cellulose δ18O is a suitable proxy for reconstructing April–September precipitation in Fujian, as well as in parts of Guangdong and Jiangxi, southeast China. In addition, significant correlations between δ18O chronology and the Indian summer monsoon index show that large‐scale atmosphere circulation also influences tree ring δ18O. Comparisons between the tropical Pacific sea surface temperature (SST) and tree ring δ18O, during the period from 1895 to 2009, indicate that the tropical Pacific SST is positively correlated with tree ring δ18O in the study region over the last 110 years, except between 1920 and 1960. Reduced El Niño–Southern Oscillation (ENSO) variance from 1920 to 1960 may result in collapsed relationship between tree ring δ18O in Fujian and tropical Pacific SST.

Decreasing Indian summer monsoon on the northern Indian sub-continent during the last 180 years: evidence from five tree-ring cellulose oxygen isotope chronologies

“…2 and 3). The modified plate method (Kagawa et al, 2015;Xu et al, 2011Xu et al, , 2013b, based on the chemical treatment procedure of the Jayme-Wise method (Green, 1963;Loader et al, 1997), was used to extract α-cellulose. The plate method of extracting α-cellulose directly from the wood plate rather than from individual rings can reduce the α-cellulose extraction time .…”

“…The plate method of extracting α-cellulose directly from the wood plate rather than from individual rings can reduce the α-cellulose extraction time . In addition, the modified plate method can reduce the amount of sample material lost during cellulose extraction, enabling sufficient material to be obtained to enable narrow rings to be measured by isotope ratio mass spectrometer (Xu et al, 2013b). There is no statistically significant difference between tree-ring δ 18 O values obtained by the plate and conventional methods (Kagawa et al, 2015;Xu et al, 2013b).…”

“…In addition, the modified plate method can reduce the amount of sample material lost during cellulose extraction, enabling sufficient material to be obtained to enable narrow rings to be measured by isotope ratio mass spectrometer (Xu et al, 2013b). There is no statistically significant difference between tree-ring δ 18 O values obtained by the plate and conventional methods (Kagawa et al, 2015;Xu et al, 2013b). For the samples from the Humla site, every annual ring of five individual trees was split with a scalpel, and then the shavings were pooled for each year and subjected to cellulose extraction for each year (Sano et al, 2012).…”

Oxygen isotopes as a valuable tool for measuring annual growth in tropical trees that lack distinct annual rings

“…To test whether or not the apparent rings of F. semicordata are annual in nature, we analyzed tree ring oxygen isotopes of the two cores in the apparent rings. We can assume that tree ring cellulose δ 18 O of the two trees should be highly correlated if the apparent rings of F. semicordata are actual annual rings, based on previous studies of tree ring cellulose δ 18 O of Fokienia hodginsii from northern Laos, Vietnam and southern China (Sano et al, 2012;Xu et al, 2011Xu et al, , 2013aXu et al, , 2013b. We measured 50 and 184 rings for Ka-018 and Ka-019, respectively.…”

Potential utility of tree ring δ18O series for reconstructing precipitation records from the lower reaches of the Yangtze River, southeast China

“…Therefore, tree ring oxygen isotope series can potentially record the amount of rainfall in areas where the amount effect occurs. Previous studies have shown that tree ring oxygen isotopes reflect regional rainy season precipitation in Laos [ Xu et al ., ], Thailand [ Xu et al ., ], Bhutan [ Sano et al ., ], and Fujian, a subtropical region of southeast China [ Xu et al ., ]. In this study, we analyzed the tree ring cellulose oxygen isotopes preserved in young and old P. taiwanensis from the lower reaches of the Yangtze River in southeast China over the period of 1850–2013, at both annual and seasonal resolution, and explore the potential utility of tree ring cellulose δ 18 O in reconstructing precipitation records.…”