Tree-Ring Based Drought Reconstruction (A.D. 1855–2001) for the Qilian Mountains, Northwestern China

Abstract

A juniper (Juniperus przewalskii Kom) tree-ring width chronology has been developed from the westernmost forest of the Qilian Mountains. Our analyses demonstrate both temperature and precipitation have significant effects on tree growth and that both should be considered in climate reconstruction. Thus a regional drought history (A.D. 1855-2001) is reconstructed by calibrating with a linear interpolation through four Palmer Drought Severity Index (PDSI) grid values nearest the sampling site. Our reconstruction extends the drought history of this area and also reveals that the most severe drought occurred in the 1920s. In the context of the drought history of western China, this extreme drought between 1925-1931 is consistent over a large surrounding region of Northwestern China. Multi-taper spectral analysis reveals the existence of significant 40-to 46-year, 29-year, and 2.1-to 3-year periods of variability. Overall, our study provides reliable information for the research of past drought variability in the Qilian Mountains, Northwestern China.

Spatial variability of tree growth along a latitudinal transect in the Qilian Mountains, northeastern Tibetan Plateau

“…High temperatures (particularly the monthly mean maximum temperature) from July to September of the previous year and from April to June of the current year were associated with poor growth due to the depletion of soil moisture by high evapotranspiration rates (Littell et al 2008). The same relationship between climate and tree growth has been reported for Qilian juniper in the Qilian Mountains (Gou et al 2001;Liang et al 2006a;Tian et al 2007) and nearby areas (Zhang et al 2003;Shao et al 2005;Liu et al 2006).…”

“…and Qinghai spruce (Picea crassifolia Kom.) in the Qilian Mountains (e.g., Kang et al 2002;Tian et al 2007;Liang et al 2009). Therefore, we hypothesized that precipitation ought to become increasingly limiting to tree growth from east to west (longitudinal gradient) and from south to north (latitudinal gradient).…”

Tree-ring derived millennial precipitation record for the south-central Tibetan Plateau and its possible driving mechanism

“…During the past few years, many researchers have investigated climate change in the Asian monsoon region based on tree-ring networks (Bräuning and Grießinger, 2006;Esper, 2000;Fan et al, 2008;Li et al, 2006;Sheppard et al, 2004;Tian et al, 2007;Yang et al, 2009). The resulting longer-term paleoclimate records may allow evaluating the climate variability at a decadal to multidecadal scale.…”

Annual Precipitation Reconstruction Based on Tree-ring Data at Seorak

“…또한, Park and Yadav (1998)는 한국 중서부의 5월 강수량을 소나무 연륜을 이용하여 복원하여 한국의 기후자 료 복원에 나이테를 이용하는 가능성을 보였다. 특징적으 로, Tree-ring과 수문현상에 대한 연구는 년 단위의 수문현 상에 대해서 주로 수행되어 왔다 (Li et al, 2006;Li et al, 2007;Meko et al, 1995;Raffalli-Delerce et al, 2004;Stahle et al, 2000;Stahle et al, 2007;Tian et al, 2007;Till and Guiot, 1990;Woodhouse and Overpeck, 1998). 이 This is an Open-Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/ licenses/by-nc/3.0) which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.…”