Annual precipitation reconstruction since AD 775 based on tree rings from the Qilian Mountains, northwestern China

Zhang, Yong; Tian, Qifeng; Gou, Xiaohua; Chen, Fahu; Leavitt, Steven W.; Wang, Yousheng

doi:10.1002/joc.2085

Cited by 71 publications

(65 citation statements)

References 61 publications

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“…The centennial cycles identified in our study were possibly associated with the frequencies of solar variations (Stuiver and Braziunas, 1989;Raspopov et al, 2008). The cycles similar to the periodicities of 90-170 years have been found in other tree-ring reconstructions in China Gou et al, 2010;Y. Zhang et al, 2011).…”

Section: The Periodicity Of the Reconstruction And The Possible Forcisupporting

confidence: 86%

“…7b) in our reconstruction are typically associated with El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) (Allan et al, 1996); similar periodicities have been identified in other temperature and precipitation reconstruction series in China (Fang et al, 2009;Li et al, 2011a;Y. Zhang et al, 2011;Sun and Liu, 2012;Deng et al, 2013).…”

Section: The Periodicity Of the Reconstruction And The Possible Forcisupporting

confidence: 81%

“…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).…”

Section: Comparison Between Instrumentalmentioning

confidence: 64%

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

et al. 2014

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Abstract.A 1343-year tree-ring chronology was developed from Qilian junipers in the central Qilian Mountains of the northeastern Tibetan Plateau (TP), China. The climatic implications of this chronology were investigated using simple correlation, partial correlation and response function analyses. The chronology was significantly positively correlated with temperature variables prior to and during the growing season, especially with monthly minimum temperature. Minimum temperature anomalies from January to August since AD 670 were then reconstructed based on the treering chronology. The reconstruction explained 58 % of the variance in the instrumental temperature records during the calibration period and captured the variation patterns in minimum temperature at the annual to centennial timescales over the past millennium. The most recent 50 years were the warmest period, while 1690-1880 was the coldest period since AD 670. Comparisons with other temperature series from neighbouring regions and for the Northern Hemisphere as a whole supported the validity of our reconstruction and suggested that it provided a good regional representation of temperature change in the northeastern Tibetan Plateau. The results of wavelet analysis showed the occurrence of significant quasi-periodic patterns at a number of recurring periods (2-4, 40-50, and 90-170 years), which were consistent with those associated with El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO), Pacific Decadal Oscillation (PDO) and solar activity. The comparison between the reconstructed temperature and the index of tropical volcanic radiative forcing indicated that some cold events recorded by tree rings may be due to the impact of tropical volcanic eruptions.

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Section: The Periodicity Of the Reconstruction And The Possible Forcisupporting

confidence: 86%

Section: The Periodicity Of the Reconstruction And The Possible Forcisupporting

confidence: 81%

Section: Comparison Between Instrumentalmentioning

confidence: 64%

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

et al. 2014

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“…specimens, and developed a 3500-year annual precipitation reconstruction for this region. Zhang et al [14], Chen et al [15], and Yang et al [16] presented long-term annual rainfall histories for the central-Qilian Mountains and the Hexi Corridor in the arid Northwest China, utilizing dendroclimatological methods in their studies. With the help of these precipitation reconstructions, it was suggested that associations exist between precipitation in northwest China and the temperature [13], El Niño-Southern Oscillation circulation (ENSO) [14], westerlies [15], and the Asian summer monsoon [16], and that further warming might contribute to an even greater moisture supply in the Northeastern Tibetan Plateau [13].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Knowledge of autumnal precipitation variation is still limited and the related data still sparse [13][14][15][16]. Furthermore, occurrences of climatic extremes (i.e., droughts, floods, cloudy rain, and rainstorms) were reported to be frequent in China, with widespread effects [18].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Reconstructed Inter-Annual Variation in September–October Precipitation for the Upper Reaches of the Heihe River and Its Implications for Regional Drought Conditions

Wang

Chen

et al. 2017

Forests

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Due to the lack of available long-term climatic records, data related to past autumn precipitation variability throughout Northwest China, especially high-frequency variation, remains limited. In this study, it was found that inter-annual changes in Qinghai spruce radial growth were significantly and negatively (p < 0.05) correlated to inter-annual differences in precipitation during the late growing season (September-October) at all sampling sites in the upper reaches of the Heihe River. Based on the growth-climate relationship, a reconstruction of the inter-annual variation in September-October precipitation from 1839 was developed. With the help of this reconstruction, we successfully captured increased inter-annual variations in September-October precipitation during 1855-1861, 1892-1902, and 1969-1986. Furthermore, we found that increased precipitation variation might be related to variation in the westerlies and instability in the relationship between the regional westerly and precipitation. Moreover, our reconstructed data significantly correlated to the drought index (i.e., October SPEI_01) and moisture-related parameters (i.e., September-October cloud fraction), suggesting that our reconstructed data could be used as an indicator of the drought condition in the Heihe River Basin during the late growing season.

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An 850‐year tree‐ring‐based reconstruction of drought history in the western Qilian Mountains of northwestern China

Gou

Gao

Deng

et al. 2014

Intl Journal of Climatology

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Studies of regional drought history will be helpful for understanding current hydroclimate variability with global warming as well as predicting future hydroclimate shifts. Long‐term tree‐ring records are scarce in the western Qilian Mountains of northwestern China, which is also the western boundary of the natural distribution of Qilian Juniper (Juniperus przewalskii Kom.) in this area. Here, we present an 850‐year (AD 1161–2010) reconstruction of May–July self‐calibrating Palmer Drought Severity Index (scPDSI) in the western Qilian Mountains that is based on two nearly millennia of ring‐width chronologies derived from long‐lived Qilian Juniper trees. The reconstruction suggests a relatively dry phase from the 15th century to the 18th century during the Little Ice Age (LIA) and a relatively wet period over the past two centuries. This reconstruction is consistent with other tree‐ring‐based hydroclimatic reconstructions from the northeastern Tibetan Plateau, as well as the corresponding century‐scale solar activity during the LIA. The three mega‐drought periods (AD 1260s–1340s, 1430s–1540s and 1640s–1740s) recorded by the tree‐ring series also correspond to the Wolf, Spörer and Maunder solar activity minimum periods. Results of the multi‐tape method analysis and wavelet analysis further confirmed the relationship between regional hydroclimate variability and solar activity forcing.

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Annual precipitation reconstruction since AD 775 based on tree rings from the Qilian Mountains, northwestern China

Cited by 71 publications

References 61 publications

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

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

Reconstructed Inter-Annual Variation in September–October Precipitation for the Upper Reaches of the Heihe River and Its Implications for Regional Drought Conditions

An 850‐year tree‐ring‐based reconstruction of drought history in the western Qilian Mountains of northwestern China

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