TY - JOUR
T1 - A 400-year tree-ring δ18O chronology for the southeastern Tibetan Plateau
T2 - Implications for inferring variations of the regional hydroclimate
AU - Liu, Xiaohong
AU - Zeng, Xiaomin
AU - Leavitt, Steven W.
AU - Wang, Wenzhi
AU - An, Wenling
AU - Xu, Guobao
AU - Sun, Weizhen
AU - Wang, Yu
AU - Qin, Dahe
AU - Ren, Jiawen
N1 - Funding Information:
This research was supported by the Global Change Research Program of China ( 2010CB951401 ), by the Knowledge Innovation Project of the Chinese Academy of Sciences ( KZCX2-YW-QN308 ), by the Self-determination Project of the State Key Laboratory of Cryospheric Sciences ( SKLCS09-03 ), and by the National Natural Science Foundation of China ( 41171167 , 41121001 ). We thank Dr. Haifeng Zhu and Peng Xu and Yong Zhang from the Institute of Geographical Sciences and Natural Resources Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences for their help during our fieldwork. We gratefully acknowledge the journal's three anonymous reviewers for their constructive comments on earlier versions of this manuscript.
PY - 2013/5
Y1 - 2013/5
N2 - We developed a new tree-ring cellulose δ18O chronology for the southeastern Tibetan Plateau from Balfour spruce (Picea likiangensis var. balfouriana [Rehd. et Wils.]) that covered the period from 1600 to 2008, and compared the results with a previous study to explore climatic variations in the Nyingchi-Bomi area. Our tree-ring δ18O chronology correlated significantly with the previous study (Shi et al., 2012; Climate of the Past 8, 205-213) during the common period from 1781 to 2005, and provided new insights into long-term regional hydroclimatic variations. Besides the significant positive correlations between tree-ring δ18O and the temperature and sunshine duration during the growing season, tree-ring δ18O was strongly negatively correlated with regional cloud cover, relative humidity, and precipitation in July and August. The correlations with cloud cover data were stronger than in previous research, but the correlations with precipitation and relative humidity in July and August were weaker. When Indian summer monsoon conditions prevail, regional hydroclimate variations (and especially cloud cover) have the dominant influence on tree-ring δ18O in the study area. Based on the regional data, δ18O in tree rings can be an effective proxy to infer the temporal variations in regional hydroclimatic conditions and the strength of the Indian Summer Monsoon. Our results reveal that the Indian Summer Monsoon weakened from 1600 to 1650, followed by continuous strengthening until 1740 and a slight weakening from 1740 to present. The temporal variations in the cellulose δ18O chronology generally corresponded well to the δ18O and glacier snow accumulation records found in ice cores from the middle Himalaya.
AB - We developed a new tree-ring cellulose δ18O chronology for the southeastern Tibetan Plateau from Balfour spruce (Picea likiangensis var. balfouriana [Rehd. et Wils.]) that covered the period from 1600 to 2008, and compared the results with a previous study to explore climatic variations in the Nyingchi-Bomi area. Our tree-ring δ18O chronology correlated significantly with the previous study (Shi et al., 2012; Climate of the Past 8, 205-213) during the common period from 1781 to 2005, and provided new insights into long-term regional hydroclimatic variations. Besides the significant positive correlations between tree-ring δ18O and the temperature and sunshine duration during the growing season, tree-ring δ18O was strongly negatively correlated with regional cloud cover, relative humidity, and precipitation in July and August. The correlations with cloud cover data were stronger than in previous research, but the correlations with precipitation and relative humidity in July and August were weaker. When Indian summer monsoon conditions prevail, regional hydroclimate variations (and especially cloud cover) have the dominant influence on tree-ring δ18O in the study area. Based on the regional data, δ18O in tree rings can be an effective proxy to infer the temporal variations in regional hydroclimatic conditions and the strength of the Indian Summer Monsoon. Our results reveal that the Indian Summer Monsoon weakened from 1600 to 1650, followed by continuous strengthening until 1740 and a slight weakening from 1740 to present. The temporal variations in the cellulose δ18O chronology generally corresponded well to the δ18O and glacier snow accumulation records found in ice cores from the middle Himalaya.
KW - Indian Summer Monsoon
KW - Regional hydroclimate
KW - Tibetan Plateau
KW - Tree-ring δO
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U2 - 10.1016/j.gloplacha.2013.02.005
DO - 10.1016/j.gloplacha.2013.02.005
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:84875275711
SN - 0921-8181
VL - 104
SP - 23
EP - 33
JO - Global and Planetary Change
JF - Global and Planetary Change
ER -