Moisture dipole over the Tibetan Plateau during the past five and a half centuries

Abstract

The South Asian Monsoon and mid-latitude Westerlies are two important controls on Tibetan Plateau (TP) fresh water resources. Understanding their interaction requires long-term information on spatial patterns in moisture variability on the TP. Here we develop a network of 23 moisture-sensitive tree-ring chronologies from major juniper forests in a north–south transect on the eastern TP. Over the past five and a half centuries, we find that these chronologies cluster into two groups, North and South, of ∼33° N. Southern and northern regional chronology subsets are positively and significantly correlated with May–June Palmer Drought Severity Indices (PDSI). The meridional moisture stress gradient reconstructed from these data suggests substantial stochastic variation, yet persistent moisture stress differences are observed between 1463–1502 CE and 1693–1734 CE. Identification of these patterns provides clues linking them with forced or intrinsic tropical–extratropical interactions and thus facilitates studies of interannual–decadal dipole variations in hydroclimate over the TP.

Quantitative precipitation estimates for the northeastern Qinghai‐Tibetan Plateau over the last 18,000 years

“…Furthermore, this general pattern is also in agreement with previously reconstructed or synthesized Holocene moisture‐related records based on various proxy data in arid and semiarid regions of the EASM‐influenced domain in northern China, for instance, pollen‐based numerical estimates for PANN from Lake Daihai [ Xu et al ] in middle Inner Mongolia and Lake Gonghai [ Chen et al , ] on the northeastern CLP, a synthesized EASM index based on 72 proxy records from monsoonal China [ Wang et al , ], a pollen‐based and regionally averaged moisture index for the EASM marginal region in northern China [ Wang and Feng , ], frequency distributions of paleosol dates in the CLP [ H. Wang et al , ] and northern monsoonal China [ Q. Li et al , ], a magnetic susceptibility record from the Yulin loess‐paleosol section in the northern CLP [ Lu et al , ], and other records as shown in Figure . However, in the ISM‐dominated areas of southern QTP, the highest monsoonal rainfall as well as lake level mostly took place in the early Holocene, being coincident with the Holocene pattern of overall summer insolation variability in the Northern Hemisphere [e.g., Fang , ; Wang , ; Zhang et al , ]. Such a general climatic trend can also be consistently indicated by most Holocene stalagmite δ 18 O records (Figure ) from the whole of the Asian monsoonal region, which have been recently argued to likely reflect the variations in isotope composition of rainfall from the ISM‐controlled region rather than the EASM‐affected area [e.g., Chen et al , ; X. L. Yang et al ., ; J.…”

New perspective on spring vegetation phenology and global climate change based on Tibetan Plateau tree-ring data

“…Forty-one series comprised raw measurement data; the others were published standardized tree-ring width chronologies: one from Yikeshu (45) and eight from sites at Zhongtie, Jiangqun, Ningmute, Gongjue, Basu, Mangkang, Bianbamx, and Luolong taken from ref. 46. In total, data from 3,006 trees were used in this study.…”

Moisture-Limited Tree Growth for a Subtropical Himalayan Conifer Forest in Western Nepal

“…As shown in a recent study, low winter and spring precipitation can cause a delay of the initiation of xylogenesis and contribute to the occurrence of the locally missing rings in years with extremely dry springs [51]. Ongoing warming temperatures could not only cause soil moisture deficiency but also amplify temperature-induced drought stress, thereby limiting tree growth and posing a risk of die-off under a warming climate [52][53][54][55][56].…”