Tree‐ring‐based annual precipitation reconstruction for the Hexi Corridor, NW China: consequences for climate history on and beyond the mid‐latitude Asian continent

Abstract

An annual (July to June) precipitation reconstruction for the period AD 1760–2010 was developed from a Picea crassifolia regional tree‐ring chronology from two sites in the northern mountainous region of the Hexi Corridor, NW China. This reconstruction explains 52.1% of the actual precipitation variance during the period 1951 to 2010. Spatial correlations with gridded land‐surface data reveal that our reconstruction contains a strong regional precipitation signal for the Hexi Corridor and for the southern margin of the Badain Jaran Desert. Significant spectral peaks were identified at 31.9, 11.1, 8.0, 7.0, 3.2, 2.6 and 2.2 years. A large‐scale comparison indicates that our reconstruction is more consistent with climate records of a Westerly‐dominated Central Asia, and that the Westerlies have a greater impact on the precipitation in this region than the Asian summer monsoon. Our reconstructed precipitation series is significantly correlated with sea‐surface temperature (SST) in the tropical Atlantic Ocean (positive), the tropical Indian Ocean (positive), the western tropical Pacific Ocean (positive), and the western North Pacific Ocean (negative). The spatial correlation patterns between our precipitation reconstruction and SSTs of the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans suggest a connection between regional precipitation variations and the high‐mid‐latitude northern atmospheric circulations (Westerlies and Asian summer monsoon).

Relationships between Tree Age and Climate Sensitivity of Radial Growth in Different Drought Conditions of Qilian Mountains, Northwestern China

“…The water stress in summer was considered to play an important role in influencing radial growth. This seemed to be a common phenomenon for Picea crassifolia in the Qilian Mountains, because other studies in the study area obtained similar results where radial growth was significantly correlated with climatic factors in the previous July and August and the current June-August [25,[38][39][40].…”

Streamflow reconstruction for the Guxiang River, eastern Tien Shan (China): linkages to the surrounding rivers of Central Asia

“…Of particular interest is the opposite trends during the 1910-1930s and the recent years. The drought events in the late 1920s (Pederson et al 2001;Liang et al 2003;Liu et al 2009;Chen et al 2011aChen et al , b, 2012Chen et al , 2013bChen et al , 2014c, as it has also been showed by this study. However, the impact of the drought on the Manasi River basin was relatively minor.…”

Tree-Ring-Based Summer Temperature Minimum Reconstruction for Taboshar, Sogd Province, Tajikistan, Since AD 1840: Linkages to the Oceans

“…The authors of another study [76], show growing trend in yearly average standardized precipitationevapotranspiration index (SPEI) with a meaning change in 1986 and after, was justified by the current work. Figure 7b, the most significant area of correlation was found in the Indian Ocean [63,78], suggesting that SST of this ocean is an important factor affecting the growth of J. Turkestanica in Taboshar. Indian Ocean is the moisture source to our study area which fall into the Indian Monsoon domain as reported by a study [79].…”