Open AccessTree-ring based reconstruction of mean maximum temperatures since AD 1829
Author(s) -
Zhou Shi,
Jixi Gao,
Xiaohui Yang,
Zhiqing Jia,
Hao Guo,
Aiyun Song,
Jianzhong Shang,
Nan Shan,
Yun Tian,
Chenglian Feng,
Shihai Lü
Publication year - 2013
Publication title -
the forestry chronicle/forestry chronicle
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.335
H-Index - 49
eISSN - 1499-9315
pISSN - 0015-7546
DOI - 10.5558/tfc2013-036
Subject(s) - mean radiant temperature , climatology , maximum temperature , environmental science , atmospheric sciences , pinus <genus> , climate change , dendrochronology , global warming , geography , geology , biology , botany , archaeology , oceanography
The correlation between tree-ring widths and climate was developed using Pinus sylvestris var. mongolica after which mean maximum temperatures of June–July since 1829 were reconstructed. Results show that the transfer function of temperature explains more than 40% of the variance and that the reconstruction sequence was consistent with several reconstructed temperature variations in the region. Over the past 181 years, climate in the region has undergone eight distinct low temperature and eight high temperature periods. A high temperature period in the 1920s to 1930s is consistent with a drought that occurred in most regions of northern China. Periods of drought in the 1870s were also identified. There was no significant increase or decrease in mean maximum June–July temperatures over the last 181 years, although since the 1950s temperatures have increased gradually. A warming trend has become more pronounced since the early 1990s but temperature levels are not significantly higher than those of the 1850s. A multi-taper spectral analysis shows that there are significant periodicities of 2.4, 2.8, 4.9, 5.1 and 21.3 years in the sequence of reconstructed temperatures. Temperatures were also affected by global climate events and solar activity.