Tree-ring recorded hydroclimatic change in Tienshan mountains during the past 500 years

Response of <i>Pinus sylvestris</i> var. <i>mongolica</i> to water change and drought history reconstruction in the past 260 years, northeast China

“…Correlation coefficients between the large-scale climate indices (AMO, PDO, NAO, SNAO, TSI and Niño3) and the local annual mean temperature, total precipitation and instrumental Dai-PDSI, as well as the Z score of dry-wet variation in the Daxing'an Mountains (DM Zscore ). severe drought that occurred over a large geographic area in northern Asia during the 1920s-1930s, has been reported by many other studies in north China (Bao et al, 2015;Chen et al, 2015;Liang et al, 2006;Liu et al, 2009). As indicated by the tree-ring series, the drought event during the 1920s-1930s in the Daxing'an Mountains was more severe than on the east Mongolian Plateau (the Hulun Buir steppe), which was consistent with the result by Dong et al (2013).…”

“…The significant highfrequency 2.0-to 5.8-year periodicities were within the 2-to 7-year cycles of ENSO , so the drought variations in the Daxing'an Mountains might be related to ENSO. Similarly, the local dry-wet changes related to ENSO have been confirmed by other tree-ring-based hydroclimatic reconstructions in northeast China (Bao et al, 2015;Lv and Wang, 2014;Wang and Lv, 2012), northwest China (Chen et al, 2015;Sun and Liu, 2013) and the Mongolian Plateau (Davi et al, 2006). A strong connection appears between our reconstruction and annual SSTs over the Pacific Ocean, especially near the Equator, the north Pacific, as well as the east and west coasts of the Pacific Ocean (Fig.…”

“…This unusual drought response pattern might be due to the relatively humid climate and the northern latitude of our study sites, where the positive effect of temperature was greater than the negative effect resulting from drought stress . Similar drought response patterns were also found in tree-ring-based drought reconstructions in the middle Qilian Mountains (Sun and Liu, 2013) and the Tian Shan Mountains of western China (Chen et al, 2015).…”

“…Severe droughts can threaten agriculture and human social activities, and also have a devastating impact on human lives and the survival of native and domestic plants and animals (Cook et al, 2010;Dong et al, 2013;Shen, 2008;Sun, 2007). Drought is one of the most severe and frequent natural disasters in China, especially in semi-arid and arid regions (Bao et al, 2015;Chen et al, 2015;Cook et al, 2010;Dong et al, 2013;Liang et al, 2006;Shen, 2008;Sun and Liu, 2013;Xu, 1998). For example, the drought in the 1920s affected almost all of northern China, accompanied by severe economic and social losses (Dong et al, 2013;Liang et al, 2006;Shen, 2008;Sun, 2007).…”

“…Recent studies indicate a trend of increasing drought frequency, persistence and severity due to global warming in many regions of the world (Bao et al, 2015;Cook et al, 2010;Dai, 2011Dai, , 2013Schrier et al, 2013). A rapid and pronounced warming accompanied by a decrease in precipitation has occurred in China, especially in high-latitude and high-altitude regions (Bao et al, 2015;Chen et al, 2015;Cook et al, 2010;Dai, 2013;Sun and Liu, 2013;Zhu et al, 2017), leading to severe and prolonged drought in recent decades, such as from 1999 to 2002 (Bao et al, 2015;Liu et al, 2009;Shen, 2008).…”