Tree-Ring Based Drought Reconstruction (A.D. 1855-2001) For The Qilian Mountains, Northwestern China
Affiliation
Center for Arid Environment and Paleoclimate Research (CAEP), Key Laboratory of Western China’s Environment Systems MOE, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou, 730000, ChinaGraduate School of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100039, China
Cold and Arid Regions Environmental and Engineering Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Lanzhou 730000, China
The State Key Laboratory of Loess and Quaternary Geology, The Institute of Earth Environment, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Xi’an 710075, China
Issue Date
2007-06Metadata
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Copyright © Tree-Ring Society. All rights reserved.Collection Information
This item is part of the Tree-Ring Research (formerly Tree-Ring Bulletin) archive. For more information about this peer-reviewed scholarly journal, please email the Editor of Tree-Ring Research at editor@treeringsociety.org.Publisher
Tree-Ring SocietyJournal
Tree-Ring ResearchCitation
Tian, Q., Wang, J., Gou, X., Zhang, Y., Peng, J., Chen, T., 2007. Tree-ring based drought reconstruction (A.D. 1855-2001) for the Qilian Mountains, northwestern China. Tree-Ring Research 63(1):27-36.Abstract
A juniper (Juniperus przewalskii Kom) tree-ring width chronology has been developed from the western-most forest of the Qilian Mountains. Our analyses demonstrate both temperature and precipitation have significant effects on tree growth and that both should be considered in climate reconstruction. Thus a regional drought history (A.D. 1855–2001) is reconstructed by calibrating with a linear interpolation through four Palmer Drought Severity Index (PDSI) grid values nearest the sampling site. Our reconstruction extends the drought history of this area and also reveals that the most severe drought occurred in the 1920s. In the context of the drought history of western China, this extreme drought between 1925–1931 is consistent over a large surrounding region of Northwestern China. Multi-taper spectral analysis reveals the existence of significant 40- to 46-year, 29-year, and 2.1- to 3-year periods of variability. Overall, our study provides reliable information for the research of past drought variability in the Qilian Mountains, Northwestern China.ISSN
2162-45851536-1098