Annual precipitation since 515 BC reconstructed from living and fossil juniper growth of northeastern Qinghai Province, China

Early summer temperature reconstruction in the eastern Tibetan plateau since ad 1440 using tree-ring width of Sabina tibetica

“…This is in agreement with earlier studies (Bräuning 2001;Shi et al 2010;Wang et al 2008) on the same species from the eastern, central, and southwestern TP. Negative influences of early summer warmth on tree growth were reported for S. przewalskii on the northeastern TP (Gou et al 2008;Liang et al 2010;Liu et al 2006;Shao et al 2010;Sheppard et al 2004;Zhang et al 2003). In the western Himalayas, warm summers also limit the growth of Juniperus polycarpos (Yadav et al 2010), Cedrus deodara (Yadav et al 1997(Yadav et al , 1999Yadav et al 2004) and Abies pindrow (Hughes 1992).…”

A 3,500-year tree-ring record of annual precipitation on the northeastern Tibetan Plateau

“…1 and SI Appendix, Table SA1). Ring-width measurements from these samples are combined here with similar data from around Dulan: previously published measurements from archaeological wood from a series of tombs just south of Dulan (∼35.8-36.3°N; 98-99°E), living trees from Shenge (37.0°N; 98.3°E) and Dulan (36.0°N; 98.0°E) (14), and more recently collected tree-ring data from Dulan (∼35.5-36.3°N; 98.1-98.7°E). By combining the measurement series from a total of 1,203 trees, it has been possible to establish an absolutely dated ring-width chronology that represents a continuous record of year-to-year growth variability for this species and general location spanning 4,649 y from -2637-2011.…”

“…Here we build on previous studies (13)(14)(15)(16)(17) by describing a new multimillennial-length chronology constructed from a combination of moisture-sensitive ring-width measurements from archaeological, subfossil and living trees from multiple sites on the northeastern TP. Processing these data in a manner designed to identify and preserve common low-frequency variability provides a history of tree growth stretching over 4,000 y and one that is shown to be a likely reliable indicator of yearly moisture changes encompassing interannual up to millennial scales of variability back at least to -1500 (Methods).…”

Precipitation record since AD 1600 from ice cores on the central Tibetan Plateau

“…Precipitation reconstructions from proxies such as tree and stalagmite rings provide high time resolution; yet due to the complex processes for their storage of meteoric water, translating the raw data into precipitation amounts is extremely difficult. Nevertheless, several researchers have established precipitation time series through analysis of tree rings from low-elevation regions bordering the Plateau (Shao et al, 2004;Sheppard et al, 2004;Achim et al, 2004). Given the arboreal physiological processes, those series failed to demonstrate any longterm trend in precipitation amounts.…”