Reconstruction of precipitation variation from tree rings in recent 1000 years in Delingha, Qinghai

Abstract

Using seven well-replicated Qilian juniper (Sabina przewalskii Kom.) ring-width chronologies developed at Zongwulong and Shalike Mts. in the northeastern part of the Qaidam Basin annual precipitation from previous July to current June in the recent 1000 years was reconstructed for Delingha. The reconstruction can capture 63.1% of precipitation variance and the equation was stable over time. For the reconstructed precipitation, wet periods occurred in AD1520-1633 and 1933-2001, whereas dry intervals in 1429-1519 and 1634-1741. In addition, the magnitude in precipitation variation was lower before 1430 with about 15 mm, but it increased to 30 mm during the period of 1430 to 1850. After 1850, the precipitation variance decreased again. In contrast to the increase in temperature, a decrease in annual precipitation was evident since the 1990s. The agreement in low-frequency variation between the reconstruction and the glacier accumulation and particulate content in Dunde ice cores during the recent several hundred years suggested that the precipitation reconstructed in this study was rather reliable, and represented a regional signal. This 1000-year reconstruction could benefit our understanding of climatic variation in decadal to century-scale in this region, and provide basic data to climate models and to prediction of future climate in the 21st century. Keywords: northeastern part of the Qaidam Basin, tree-ring width series of Qilian juniper, precipitation reconstruction in 1000 years.

Millennial minimum temperature variations in the Qilian Mountains, China: evidence from tree rings

“…Such discrepancies seem to be a common problem in tree-ring-based temperature reconstructions in China, in which the agreement between observed data and estimated data became worse before the 1990s in many regions across China (Deng et al, 2013;Fan et al, , 2010Gou et al, 2007b;Lv and Zhang, 2013;Shi et al, 2010;Song et al, 2014;Yang et al, 2009bYang et al, , 2010Zhang et al, 2013;Zhu et al, 2011a). Similar issues were also found for the tree-ring-based precipitation reconstructions Fan et al, 2008b;Liu et al, 2011;Shao et al, 2005;Yang et al, 2011Yang et al, , 2014Y. Zhang et al, 2011;Zhang et al, 2014).…”

Araucaria growth response to solar and climate variability in South Brazil

“…Tree-ring data have been used to reconstruct the climate (e.g., Case and MacDonald, 1995;Jacoby et al, 2003;D'Arrigo et al, 2001;Salzer and Kipfmueller, 2005;Shao et al, 2005;Therrell et al, 2006;Lorensi and Prestes, 2016), and there is evidence of solar influence on these data in timescales of decades to centuries. In addition, there is evidence of solar cycles in living and fossil tree-ring time series (Mori, 1981;Ammons et al, 1983;Nordemann et al, 2005;Raspopov et al, 2011;Prestes et al, 2011Prestes et al, , 2014Dorotovič et al, 2014;Perone et al, 2016).…”

Early summer temperature reconstruction in the eastern Tibetan plateau since ad 1440 using tree-ring width of Sabina tibetica

“…Tree rings, as an annually resolved proxy record, have been increasingly used to reconstruct past climate changes on the TP (e.g., Bräuning and Mantwill 2004;Gou et al 2008;Liang and Eckstein 2009;Liang et al 2008;Liu et al 2007;Liu et al 2006;Shao et al 2005;Shi et al 2010;Wang et al 2009;Yang et al 2009;Yin et al 2008;Zhang et al 2003;Zhu et al 2008). For example, Liu et al (2007) reconstructed winter temperature variations since AD 1000 for the middle Qilian Mountains using Sabina przewalskii.…”