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Reconstruction of alpine snowfall in southern Kazakhstan based on oxygen isotopes in tree rings

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Abstract

Alpine snowfall is an important source of water for arid areas. To investigate the history of alpine snowfall beyond instrumental records, we developed a tree-ring α-cellulose oxygen isotope (δ18O) chronology of Schrenk spruce (Picea schrenkiana Fisch. et Mey) for the period 1850–2015 using samples from timberline in southern Kazakhstan. We find that the tree-ring δ18O chronology is significantly negatively correlated with alpine snowfall of the previous year. The δ18O chronology accounts for 46.4% of the observed variance in winter precipitation (1977–2014), and was therefore used to reconstruct alpine snowfall of the previous winter (WP). The alpine snowfall reconstruction reveals that the WP has increased significantly in southern Kazakhstan over the past 166 years, at a rate of 1.7 mm/decade. Prior to the 1910s, there was relatively less alpine snowfall; since the 1920s, there has been more. The WP reconstruction indicates that alpine snowfall increased during the 1860–1880s, 1910–1920s, 1940–1950s, and from the 1980s to present, and decreased during the other decades. Since the 1980s, alpine snowfall of southern Kazakhstan continues and increases rapidly.

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Data availability

Data of tree-ring oxygen isotope chronologies and snowfall reconstruction in the present study are available by contacting Prof. Ruibo Zhang (river0511@163.com).

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Funding

This work was supported by Key Laboratory Opening Foundation of Xinjiang Uigur Autonomous Region (2019D04002), National Natural Science Foundation of China Projects (41805130, 41975110), Regional collaborative innovation project of Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region (2021E01022), and Tianshan Youth Project of Xinjiang Uigur Autonomous Region (2020Q026).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Key Laboratory of Tree-Ring Physical and Chemical Research (CMA)/Xinjiang Key Laboratory of Tree-Ring Ecology, Institute of Desert Meteorology, China Meteorological Administration, Urumqi, 830002, China

    Li Qin, Huaming Shang, Shulong Yu & Ruibo Zhang

  2. Meteorology and Hydrology Department, Al-Farabi Kazakh National University, Almaty, 050010, Kazakhstan

    Kainar Bolatov & Aigerim Bolatova

  3. Key Laboratory of Western China’s Environmental Systems (Ministry of Education), Lanzhou University, Lanzhou, 730000, China

    Xiaohua Gou

  4. Almaty Branch of Kazakh Scientific Research Institute of Forestry, Ministries of Agriculture, Almaty, 050010, Kazakhstan

    Maisupova Bagila & Utebekova Ainur

  5. Ministry of Education and Science, Kazakh National Agrarian University (KazNAU), Almaty, 050010, Kazakhstan

    Utebekova Ainur

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  1. Li Qin
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  2. Kainar Bolatov
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  3. Huaming Shang
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  4. Shulong Yu
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  5. Xiaohua Gou
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  6. Maisupova Bagila
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  7. Aigerim Bolatova
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  8. Utebekova Ainur
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  9. Ruibo Zhang
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Contributions

Li Qin: conceptualization, methodology, software, formal analysis, writing—original draft preparation, visualization, funding acquisition. Kainar Bolatov: investigation. Huaming Shang: methodology, investigation. Shulong Yu: investigation. Xiaohua Gou: resources. Maisupova Bagila: investigation. Aigerim Bolatova: investigation. Utebekova Ainur: investigation. Ruibo Zhang: conceptualization, validation, investigation, resources, data curation, writing—review and editing, supervision, project administration, funding acquisition.

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Correspondence to Ruibo Zhang.

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Qin, L., Bolatov, K., Shang, H. et al. Reconstruction of alpine snowfall in southern Kazakhstan based on oxygen isotopes in tree rings. Theor Appl Climatol 148, 727–737 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00704-022-03974-0

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