Skip to main content

Advertisement

Log in

Tree rings and climate for the last 680 years in Wulan area of northeastern Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau

  • Original Article
  • Published:
Climatic Change Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

A 680-year ring-width chronology of Sabina przewalskii Kom. was developed for Wulan area of northeastern Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau, China. Response function and correlation analyses showed that spring precipitation (May–June) is the critical limiting factor for tree-ring growth, and temperature in prior November may also play a role in affecting tree-ring growth. Excessive spring precipitation occurred during AD 1380s–1390s, 1410s–1420s, 1520s–1560s and 1938 to present. Dry springs occurred during AD 1430s–1510s, 1640s–1730s and 1780s–1890s most of which generally coincided with cold intervals of the Little Ice Age (LIA) on the plateau, suggesting that the LIA climate on the northeastern Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau might be characterized by three episodes of dry spring and cold autumn. The relatively driest spring and probably coldest autumn occurred in AD 1710s–1720s, 1787–1797, 1815–1824, 1869–1879 and 1891–1895. The extreme drought in AD 1787–1797 might result from little monsoon precipitation due to the failure of Asian monsoon in this period. The tree-ring data produced in this study contribute to the spatial expansion of proxy climate records for the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • An ZS, Porter SC, Kutzbach JE, Wu XH, Wang SM, Liu XD, Li XQ, Zhou WJ (2000) Asynchronous Holocene optimum of the east Asian monsoon. Quat Sci Rev 19:743–762

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bradley RS, Jones PD (1993) ‘Little Ice Age’ summer temperature variations: their nature and relevance to recent global warming trends. Holocene 3:367–376

    Google Scholar 

  • Bräuning A (1994) Dendrochronology for the last 1400 years in eastern Tibet. GeoJournal 34:75–95

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bräuning A, Mantwill B (2004) Summer temperature and summer monsoon history on the Tibetan plateau during the last 400 years recorded by tree rings. Geophys Res Lett 31:L2425, doi:10.1029/2004GL020793.

  • Cook ER, Holmes RL (1996) Guide for computer program ARSTAN. In: Grissino-Mayer HD, Holmes RL, Fritts HC (eds) The International Tree-Ring Data Bank program library version 2.0 user’s manual. University of Arizona, Tucson Arizona, pp 75–87

  • Cook ER, Krusic PJ, Jones PD (2003) Dendroclimatic signals in long tree-ring chronologies from the Himalayas of Nepal. Int J Climatol 23:707–732

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Fritts HC (1996) ‘Quick help for Precon now called Preconk version 5.11. The University of Arizona, Tucson Arizona

  • Gong G, Hameed, S (1991) The variation of moisture conditions in China during the last 2,000 years. Int J Clim 11:271–283

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Guiot J (1991) The bootstrapped response function. Tree-Ring Bull 51:39–41

    Google Scholar 

  • Helle G, Schleser GH, Bräuning A (2002) Climate history of the Tibetan plateau for the last 1500 years as inferred from stable CARBON isotopes in tree-rings. Proceedings of the International Conference on the Study of Environmental Change Using Isotope Techniques IAEA CN-80-80, Vienna 22-27/04/2001:301–311

  • Holmes RL (1983) Computer-assisted quality control in tree-ring dating and measurement. Tree-Ring Bull 43:69–75

    Google Scholar 

  • Hughes MK, Diaz HF (1994) Was there a ‘Medieval Warm Period’, and if so, where and when?. Clim Change 26:109–142

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change): (2001) Climate Change in 2001: the scientific basis. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.

  • Ji LD, Wang GP, Wang JZ (1981) Some aspects of the snowstorms over north China during the winter 1978. The corpus of disastrous climate in north China. Meteorological Press of China, Beijing pp 67–73 (in Chinese)

  • Kang XC, Graumlich LJ, Sheppard P. (1997) A 1835 tree-ring chronology and its preliminary analysis in Dulan region, Qinghai. Chinese Sci Bull 42:1122–1124

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kirdyanov A, Hughes M, Vaganov E, Schweingruber F, Silkin P (2003) The importance of early summer temperature and date of snow melt for tree growth in the Siberian Subarctic. Trees 17:61–69

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kreutz KJ, Mayewski PA, Meeker LD, Twickler MS, Whitlow SL, Pittalwala LL (1997) Bipolar changes in atmospheric circulation during the Little Ice Age. Science 277:1294–1296

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ortlieb L (2000) The documented historical record of El Nino events in Peru: an update of the Quinn record. In: Diaz HF, Markgraf V (eds.) El Nino and the southern oscillation: multiscale variability, global and regional impacts. University Press, Cambridge pp 207–295

  • Rampino MR, Self S (1982) Historic eruptions of Tambora (1815), Krakatau (1883), and Agung (1963), their stratospheric aerosols, and climatic impact. Quat Res 18:127–143

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Shao XM, Huang L, Liu HB, Liang EY, Fang XQ, Wang LL (2004) Variations in precipitation during the millennium in Delingha region by tree-ring records. Chinese Sci(D) 34:145–153 (in Chinese)

    Google Scholar 

  • Sheppard PR, Tarasov PE, Graumlich LJ, Heussner K-U, Wagner M, Österle H, Thompson LG (2004) Annual precipitation since 515 BC reconstructed from living and fossil juniper growth of northeastern Qinghai Province, China. Clim Dynamics 23:869–881, DOI 10.1007/s00382-004–0473–2.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sun HL, Zheng D (eds) (1998) Formation, evolution and development of Qinghai- Tibetan Plateau. Guangdong Science and Technology Press, China (in Chinese).

  • Thompson LG, Mosley-Thompson E, Davis ME, Bolzan JF, Dai J, Yao TD, Gundestrup N, Wu X, Klein L, Xie Z (1989) Holocene-late Pleistocene climatic ice core records from Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau. Science 246:474–477

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Thompson LG, Yao TD, Mosley-Thompson E, Davis ME, Henderson KA, Lin PN (2000) A high-resolution millennial record of the south Asian monsoon from Himalayan ice cores. Science 289:1916–1919

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wang PX, Clemens S, Beaufort L, Braconnot P, Ganssen G, Jian ZM, Kershaw P, Sarnthein M (2004) Evolution and variability of the Asian monsoon system: state of the art and outstanding issues. Quat Sci Rev. doi:10.1016 j.quascirev.2004.10.002

  • Wu XD, Zhan XZ (1991) Tree-ring width and climatic changes in China. Quat Sci Rev 10:545–549

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Yao TD, Shi YF, Thompson LG (1997) High resolution record of paleoclimate since the Little Ice Age from the Tibetan ice cores. Quat Int 37:19–23

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ye DZ, Gao YX (1979) Meteorology on the Qinghai-Xizang (Tibet) Plateau. Science Press, Beijing (in Chinese)

  • Yuan L (eds) (1994) Disaster history in northwest China. Gansu People’s Press, Lanzhou (in Chinese)

  • Zhang JC, Crowley TJ (1989) Historical climate records in China and reconstruction of past climates. J Climate 2:833–849

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Zhang QB, Cheng GD, Yao TD, Kang XC, Huang JG (2003) A 2,326-year tree-ring record of climate variability on the northeastern Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau. Geophys Res Lett 30(14):1739, doi:10.1029/2003GL017425

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Zhang ZH, Wu XD (1996) The change and rapid shifts of moisture index and its annual variability since 1310 AD in Qilianshan area. Quat Sci 4:368–378

    Google Scholar 

  • Zheng BX, Jiao KQ, Li SJ, Liu JQ (1990) New progress about chronological studies of Quaternary glaciations in Qinghai-Xizang Plateau. Chinese Sci Bull 36:482–486

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Qi-Bin Zhang.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Huang, JG., Zhang, QB. Tree rings and climate for the last 680 years in Wulan area of northeastern Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau. Climatic Change 80, 369–377 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10584-006-9135-1

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Revised:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10584-006-9135-1

Keywords

Navigation