Tree‐ring recorded drought variability in the northern Min Mountains of northwestern China

Abstract

Drought is a recurrent natural disaster in northwestern China and it can have a substantial impact on the affected region; therefore, knowledge of drought variability is very important for drought adaptation and mitigation. However, the observed climate data are generally limited in length, which may hamper our understanding the full range of drought variability. Using tree‐ring width measurements of 155 series from 81 Pinus tabulaeformis trees at three sites in the northern Min Mountains of northwestern China, the standardized precipitation evapotranspiration index (SPEI) for May–August from 1804 to 2011 were reconstructed, which account for 64.8% of the variance in the instrumental record over 1954–2011. The new reconstruction is generally consistent with other moisture reconstructions nearby. Two notable features of the SPEI reconstruction is the severe drought starting in the late 1990s and the gradual drying trend since 1954. These features are also apparent in areas located in the north boundaries of Eastern Asian Summer Monsoon (EASM), which indicates that the study area may be affected by the EASM.

Multi‐century drought variability in the southern Min Mountains

“…The comparison between our drought reconstruction and other reconstructions from nearby areas (Fang et al ., ; 2012; ; Deng et al ., ) shows similarities and differences (Figure ). The correlation coefficients between our reconstruction and nearby reconstructions were 0.55 ( n = 208, Lazikou Pass), 0.28 ( n = 327, Dieshan Mountains), 0.36 ( n = 323, Guiqing Mountains), and 0.27 ( n = 326, Kongtong Mountains), respectively, which were all significant positive.…”

“…The strongest response at a 12‐month scale was consistent with the reconstruction of Palmer Drought Severity Index (PDSI) in previous studies conducted near the study area (e.g., Fang et al ., ; Song and Liu, 2011), as the PDSI had a fixed temporal scale between 9 and 12 months (Vicente‐Serrano et al ., ). For monthly SPEI at the 12‐month scale, relatively high ( r > 0.6) correlations were observed from May to August, which is consistent with other studies on the same tree species in the northern Min Mountains and the Helan Mountains (Shi et al ., ; Deng et al ., ).…”

“…Map of the study area showing the locations of the sampling sites (circle), the nearest climate data grid (square), and locations of the published hydroclimatic reconstructions used for comparison (triangles). DS, KTS, GQS, and LZK indicate the reconstructions from the Dieshan Mountains (Fang et al ., ), the Kongtong Mountains (Fang et al ., ), the Guiqing Mountains (Fang et al ., ), and the Lazikou Pass (Deng et al ., ), respectively. The lines are the boundaries between provinces [Colour figure can be viewed at wileyonlinelibrary.com]…”

“…() reconstructed the precipitation variation of the past 500 years in the Die Mountains, and Deng et al . () reconstructed the variations in the standardized precipitation evapotranspiration index (SPEI) in the Lazikou pass from 1804 CE. However, the high altitude of the Min Mountains can significantly influence the low‐level atmospheric flow, which may result in differences in the regional climate.…”

Patterns in data of extreme droughts/floods and harvest grades derived from historical documents in eastern China during 801–1910

“…Numerous studies, based on observational data, show that many regions of the world (in particular southern Europe and western Africa) have been experiencing trends toward longer and more intense droughts since the 1950s (IPCC, 2012;Dai, 2011Dai, , 2013. The climate in eastern China is dominated by the Asian monsoon, with a large precipitation variability, leading to drought and flood on a regional, and occasionally larger, scale (Ding et al, 2013). Data show that severe and extreme droughts have become more frequent in northeast China, northern China, and the eastern part of northwest China since the late 1990s and in southwest China between 2006 and 2013 (Zou et al, 2005(Zou et al, , 2010Zhai et al, 2010;and Yu et al, 2014).…”