[1] Changes in indices of climate extremes are studied on the basis of daily series of temperature and precipitation observations from 116 meteorological stations in central and south Asia. Averaged over all stations, the indices of temperature extremes indicate warming of both the cold tail and the warm tail of the distributions of daily minimum and maximum temperature between 1961 and 2000. For precipitation, most regional indices of wet extremes show little change in this period as a result of low spatial trend coherence with mixed positive and negative station trends. Relative to the changes in the total amounts, there is a slight indication of disproportionate changes in the precipitation extremes. Stations with near-complete data for the longer period of 1901-2000 suggest that the recent trends in extremes of minimum temperature are consistent with long-term trends, whereas the recent trends in extremes of maximum temperature are part of multidecadal climate variability.
Tree-ring-width index chronologies of teak (Tectona grandis L.F.) from three sites in central India have been studied for their dendroclimatic potential. The existence of good correlation among the three site chronologies indicates the influence of common forcing factor to the tree growth of the region. Tree growth and climate relationship based on correlation analysis revealed the important contribution of moisture index and rainfall rather than the direct influence of the temperature on tree growth during different seasons. Significant positive relationship of moisture index and rainfall during the monsoon months as well as on the annual scale with tree-ring width variations over the region indicates the important role of moisture availability at the root zone. The results suggest that the teak tree-ring chronologies can be used as high resolution proxy for past precipitation and moisture level in the environment.
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