August temperature variability in the southeastern Tibetan Plateau since AD 1385 inferred from tree rings

Zhu, H.F., et al., August temperature variability in the southeastern Tibetan Plateau since AD 1385 inferred from tree rings. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology, 2011: p. doi:10.1016/j.palaeo.2011.02.017.

Long-term high-resolution climate proxies are essential for understanding climate variability on the Tibetan Plateau (TP), where few long-term climate records are available. We developed a new summer (August) temperature reconstruction over the period 1385-2002 based on a tree-ring width chronology of Balfour spruce (Picea likiangensis var. balfouriana) on the southeastern TP created using the Regional Curve Standardization method. The reconstruction explains 44.7% of the variance in the instrumental temperature records during the calibration period (1962-2002), and captures temperature variability over a broad region of the TP. Warmer than average Augusts were found during the periods 1446-1494, 1509-1522, 1553-1567, 1797-1812, 1845-1905 and 1918-2002. Cooler than average Augusts occurred from 1385-1416, 1426-1445, 1495-1508, 1523-1552, 1568-1686, 1695-1718, 1725-1796, 1813-1844 and 1906-1917. A warming trend in the 20th century was unprecedented during the past six centuries. The reconstruction closely matched other tree-ring summer temperature reconstructions from neighboring regions, as well as patterns from ice-core δO18 data, and fluctuated in synchrony with Northern Hemisphertemperature reconstructions.