Tree-ring-based spring precipitation reconstruction in the Sikhote-Alin' Mountain range

Abstract

Abstract. Climate reconstructions provide important insight into past climate variability and help us to understand the large-scale climate drivers and impact of climate change. However, our knowledge about long-term year-to-year climate variability is still limited due to the lack of high-resolution reconstructions. Here, we present the first precipitation reconstructions based on tree rings from Pinus koraiensis (Korean pine) from three sites placed along a latitudinal (330 km) gradient in the Sikhote-Alin' mountains in the Russian Far East. The tree-ring width chronologies were built using standard tree-ring procedures. We reconstructed the April–June precipitation for the southern Sikhote-Alin' (SSA), March–June precipitation for the central Sikhote-Alin' (CSA) and March–July precipitation for the northwestern Sikhote-Alin' (NSA) over the years 1602 to 2013, 1804 to 2009 and 1858 to 2013, respectively. We found that an important limiting factor for Korean pine growth was precipitation within the period when the air current coming from the continent during the cold period is replaced with the impact of the wet ocean air current. We identified that common wet years for SSA, CSA and NSA occurred in 1805, 1853, 1877, 1903, 1906, 1927, 1983 and 2009 and common dry years occurred in 1821, 1869, 1919, 1949 and 2003. Our reconstructions have 3-, 15- and 60-year periods, which suggests the influence of the El Niño–Southern Oscillation and Pacific Decadal Oscillation on the region's climate and relevant processes. Despite the impact of various global processes, the main contribution to precipitation formation in the study area is still made by the Pacific Ocean, which determines their amount and periodicity.

Local Topography Has Significant Impact on Dendroclimatic Response of Picea jezoensis and Determines Variation of Factors Limiting Its Radial Growth in the Southern Sikhote-Alin

“…According to forecasts, this trend is expected to continue in the near future [15]. Long-term trends in precipitation change based on meteorological observations and dendrochronological studies have not been found in the region [26]. However, there are trends towards aridification with decreasing elevation and, conversely, towards humidification with increasing elevation [95].…”

“…Global climate change within the Sikhote-Alin Mountains is manifested by rapid increases in temperatures during the second half of the year and changes in precipitation regime due to processes in the Pacific Ocean. Winter precipitation decreases, while summer precipitation, on the other hand, increases, but the annual total remains almost unchanged [15,25,26]. It has also been observed that there are indirect manifestations of climate change, such as an increase in the number and intensity of tropical cyclones (typhoons) and their northward advancement [6,27].…”

Regional differences in summer monsoon precipitation variability reconstructed from multiple proxies in Asia during the past millennium

“…For the tree‐ring, only width and oxygen isotope (δ 18 O) are used in this study, because tree‐ring density in the study area is believed to indicate the summer temperature change (Duan, 2015). These tree‐ring data are from the World Data Center (WDC) for Paleoclimatology (https://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/data-access/paleoclimatology-data) and recently published papers (Shah et al ., 2007; Xu et al ., 2013; Xu et al ., 2015; Buckley et al ., 2017; Pumijumnong et al ., 2020; Ukhvatkina et al ., 2021). The sample sites are mainly located in the Tibetan Plateau, Mainland Southeast Asia and Japan.…”

“…These tree-ring data are from the World Data Center (WDC) for Paleoclimatology (https://www. ncdc.noaa.gov/data-access/paleoclimatology-data) and recently published papers (Shah et al, 2007;Xu et al, 2013;Xu et al, 2015;Buckley et al, 2017;Pumijumnong et al, 2020;Ukhvatkina et al, 2021). The sample sites are mainly located in the Tibetan Plateau, Mainland Southeast Asia and Japan.…”

A dataset of standard precipitation index reconstructed from multi-proxies over Asia for the past 300 years

“…For the other 32 sites that only have chronologies, EPS is not available thus we use the minimum sample size of 5 to determine the first reliable year. Besides ITRDB, 16 tree-ring chronologies that indicate local precipitation or drought from recently published papers are included in our study (Shah et al, 2007;Sass-Klaassen et al, 2008;Arsalani et al, 2018;Arsalani et al, 2015;Chen et al, 2016;Zhang et al, 2017;Pumijumnong et al, 2020;Xu et al, 2015;Buckley et al, 2017;Ukhvatkina et al, 2021;Akkemik et al, 2020;Kostyakova et al, 2017;Kucherov, 2010). Compared with the tree-ring network used in previous studies over the monsoon Asia region (Cook et al, 2010a;Feng et al, 2013;Shi et al, 2018;Shi et al, 2017), a total of 135 ring-width chronologies are added in our study.…”