Abstract
The increasing frequency and intensity of extreme climate events have caused serious impacts on the service functions of terrestrial ecosystems and the production and life of human society in recent years. The warm nights (TN90p) variable of the 26 extreme climate indicators was the main factor controlling the tree radial growth of Schrenk spruce (Picea schrenkiana) in the Tianshan Mountains region based on the responses of tree-ring width in the 5 sample sites. Therefore, TN90p in the growth season from May to September (TN90p5–9) during 1735–2016 was reconstructed on the basis of the time stability of the growth–climate relationships. The interpretation rate of variance of the reconstructed equation was 45.4% (R2adj = 44.4%, F = 45.7). The reconstruction showed four relatively high TN90p5–9 historic intervals (1747–1798, 1856–1872, 1906–1951, and 2002–2016) and four low intervals (1735–1747, 1798–1856, 1872–1900, and 1951–2002). The occurrence frequency of extreme high values was higher than that of extreme low values during the reconstruction period of 1735–2016. The extreme values of reconstruction were consistent with historical droughts and large-scale volcanic eruptions, indicating that the reconstruction series had high accuracy. Multi-window spectral periodic analysis and spatial correlation analysis revealed that TN90p5–9 variation in the study area was affected by large-scale sea–air stress factors. In particular, the TN90p5–9 obtained by using R/S analysis (rescaled range analysis) will continue to show an upward trend in the relative period of time in the future. This trend will lead to a further decrease in the radial growth of trees and even trigger forest death events.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Alexander LV, Zhang XB, Peterson TC, Caesar J, Gleason TC, Tank A, Haylock M, Collins D, Trewin B, Rahimzadeh F, Tagipour A, Rupa KK, Revadekar VJ, Griffiths G, Vincent L, Stephenson DB, Burn J, Aguilar E, Brunet M, Taylor M, George NM, Zhai PM, Rusticucci M, Vazquez-Aguirre JL (2006) Global observed changes in daily climate extremes of temperature and precipitation. J Geophys Res-Atmos 111(D5):1042–1063
Allan R, Lindesay J and Parker D (1996) El Nino: Southern Oscillation and climatic variability. CSIRO Publishing, Collinwood
Anderegg WRL, Kane JM, Anderegg LDL (2012) Consequences of widespread tree mortality triggered by drought and temperature stress. Nat Clim Chang 3(1):30–36
Barriopedro D, Fischer EM, Luterbacher J, Trigo RM, Garcia-Herrera R (2011) The hot summer of 2010: redrawing the temperature record map of Europe. Science 332(6026):220–224
Bastos A, Gouveia CM, Trigo RM, Running SW (2014) Analysing the spatio-temporal impacts of the 2003 and 2010 extreme heatwaves on plant productivity in Europe. Biogeosciences 11(13):3421–3435
Biondi F, Waikul K (2004) DENDROCLIM2002: a C++ program for statistical calibration of climate signals in tree-ring chronologies. Comput Geosci 30(3):303–311
Briffa KR (1998) Reduced sensitivity of recent tree-growth to temperature at high northern latitudes. Nature 391(6668):678–682
Caesar JA, Alexander L, Trewin B, Tse-ring K, Sorany L, Vuniyayawa V, Keosavang N, Shimana A, Htay MM, Karmacharya J, Jayasinghearachchi DA, Sakkamart J, Soares E, Hung LT, Thuong LT, Hue CT, Dung NTT, Hung PV, Cuong HD, Cuong NM, Sirabaha S (2011) Changes in temperature and precipitation extremes over the Indo-Pacific region from 1971 to 2005. Int J Climatol 31(6):791–801
Chen YN, Deng HJ, Li BF, Li Z, Xu CC (2014) Abrupt change of temperature and precipitation extremes in the arid region of Northwest China. Quat Int 336:35–43
Chen F, Yuan YJ (2016) Erratum to: Streamflow reconstruction for the Guxiang river, eastern Tienshan(China): linkages to the surrounding Rivers of Central Asia. Envion Earth Sci 75(14):1049–1057
Cheng H, Zhang PZ, Spötl C, Edwards RL, Cai YJ, Zhang DZ, Sang WC, Tan M, An ZS (2012) The climatic cyclicity in semiarid-arid Central Asia over the past 500,000 years. Geophys Res Lett 39(1):1705–1709
Choi G, Collins D, Ren GY, Trewin B, Baldi M, Fukuda Y, Afzaal M, Pianmana T, Gomboluudev P, Huong PTT, Lias N, Kwon WT, Boo KO, Cha YM, Zhou YQ (2009) Changes in means and extreme events of temperature and precipitation in the Asia-Pacific Network region, 1955–2007. Int J Climatol 29(13):1906–1925
Ciais P, Reichstein M, Viovy N, Granier A, Ogee J, Allard V, Aubinet M, Buchmann N, Bernhorer C, Carrara A, Chevallier F, Noblet ND, Friend AD, Friedlingstein P, Grunwald T, Heinesch B, Keronen P, Knohl A, Krinner G, Loustau D, Manca G, Matteucci G, Miglietta F, Ourcival JM, Papale D, Pilegaard K, Rambal S, Seufert G, Soussana JF, Sanz MJ, Schulze ED, Vesala T, Valentini R (2005) Europe-wide reduction in primary productivity caused by the heat and drought in 2003. Nature 437(7058):529–533
Cook ER, Anchukaitis KJ, Buckley BM, D'Arrigo RD, Jacoby GC, Wright WE (2010) Asian monsoon failure and megadrought during the last millennium. Science 328(5977):486–489
Cook ER, Kairiukstis LA (1990) Methods of dendrochronology. Kluwer Academic, Dordrecht
Cook ER, Krusic PJ, Melvin T (2013) Program RCSigFree: version 43ptr05. Lamont–Doherty Earth Obs. Columbia Univ, Palisades
D'Arrigo R, Wilson R, Liepert B, Cherubini P (2008) On the ‘divergence problem’ in northern forests: a review of the tree-ring evidence and possible causes. Glob Planet Chang 60(3):289–305
Donald KY, Brian HL (2013) Evaluating the temperature sensitivity of radial growth patterns from whitebark pine in the western Canadian cordillera. Dendrochronologia 31:16–28
Douville H, Salas-Mélia D, Tyteca S (2006) On the tropical origin of uncertainties in the global land precipitation response to global warming. Clim Dyn 26(4):367–385
Fang KY, Gou XH, Chen FH, Cook E, Li JB, Li YJ (2012) Spatiotemporal variability of tree growth and its association with climate over Northwest China. Trees-Struct Funct 26(5):1471–1481
Franceschini T, Bontemps JD, Leban JM (2012) Transient historical decrease in early- and latewood density and unstable sensitivity to summer temperature for Norway spruce in North-Eastern France. Can J For Res 42(2):219–226
Fritts H (1976) Tree rings and climate. Academic, London
Fu CB, Zeng ZM (2005) Correlations between North Atlantic Oscillation index in winter and eastern China flood/drought index in summer in the last 530 years. Chin Sci Bull 50:2505–2516
Gómez-Guerrero A, Silva LC, Barrera-Reyes M, Kishchuk B, Velazquez-Martinez A, Martinez-Trinidad T, Plascencia-Escalante FO, Horwath WR (2013) Growth decline and divergent tree ring isotopic composition (δ13C and δ18O) contradict predictions of CO2 stimulation in high altitudinal forests. Glob Chang Biol 19:1748–1758
Guan YH, Zhang XC, Zheng FL, Wang B (2015) Trends and variability of daily temperature extremes during 1960-2012 in the Yangtze River Basin, China. Int J Climatol 124(3):79–94
Holmes RL (1983) Computer-assisted quality control in tree-ring dating and measurement. Tree-Ring Bull 43(3):69–78
Hsieh DA (1991) Chaos and nonlinear dynamics: application to financial markets. J Financ 46(5):1839–1877
Huang R, Zhu HF, Liang EY, Asad F, GrieBinger J (2019) A tree-ring–based summer (June–July) minimum temperature reconstruction for the western Kunlun Mountains since AD 1681. Theor Appl Climatol 138(8):673–682
IPCC (2013) Climate change 2013: the physical science basis: contribution of working group I to the fifth assessment report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge
Jiang P, Liu HY, Wu XC, Wang HY (2017) Tree-ring-based SPEI reconstruction in central Tianshan Mountains of China since A.D. 1820 and links to westerly circulation. Int J Climatol 37(6):2863–2872
Jiao L, Wang SJ, Jiang Y, Liu XR (2019a) A 333-year record of the mean minimum temperature reconstruction in the western Tianshan Mountains, China. Geochronometria 46:37–48
Jiao L, Jiang Y, Zhang WT, Wang MC, Wang SJ, Liu XR (2019b) Assessing the stability of radial growth responses to climate change by two dominant conifer trees species in the Tianshan Mountains Northwest China. Forest Ecol Manag 433:667–677
Jones P, Hulme M (1996) Calculating regional climatic time series for temperature and precipitation: methods and illustrations. Int J Climatol 16:361–377
Keggenhoff I, Elizbarashvili M, Amiri-Farahani A, King L (2014) Trends in daily temperature and precipitation extremes over Georgia, 1971-2010. Weather Clim Extremes 4:75–85
LeBlanc DC (1990) Relationships between breast-height and whole-stem growth indexes for red spruce on Whiteface Mountain New York. Can J For Res 20:1399–1407
Lewis SL, Brando PM, Phillips OL, Heijden GMF, Nepstad D (2011) The 2010 Amazon drought. Science 331(6017):554
Li JB, Gou XH, Cook ER, Chen FH (2006) Tree-ring based drought reconstruction for the central Tien Shan area in Northwest China. Geophys Res Lett 33:408–412
Liang EY, Leuschner C, Dulamsuren C, Wagner B, Hauck M (2016) Global warming-related tree growth decline and mortality on the north-eastern Tibetan plateau. Clim Chang 134(1–2):163–176
Linderholm HW, Björklund J, Seftigen K, Gunnarson BE, Fuentes M (2015) Fennoscandia revisited: a spatially improved tree-ring reconstruction of summer temperatures for the last 900 years. Clim Dyn 45:933–947
Liu WH, Gou XH, Li JB, Huo YX, Fang KY (2015) A method to separate temperature and precipitation signals encoded in tree-ring widths for the western Tien Shan Mountains, Northwest China. Glob Planet Chang 133:141–148
Mann ME, Lees JM (1996) Robust estimation of background noise and signal detection in climatic time series. Clim Chang 33(3):409–445
Meehl GA (1987) The annual cycle and interannual variability in the tropical Pacific and Indian Ocean regions. Mon Weather Rev 115(1):27–50
Melvin TM, Briffa KR (2008) A “signal-free” approach to dendroclimatic standardisation. Dendrochronologia 26:71–86
Michaelsen J (1987) Cross-validation in statistical climate forecast models. J Clim Appl Meteorol 26:1589–1600
Nie CY, Zhang QB, Lyu LX (2017) Millennium-long tree-ring chronology reveals megadroughts on the southeastern Tibetan Plateau. Tree-ring Res 73(1):1–10
Osborn TJ, Briffa KR, Jones PD (1997) Adjusting variance for sample size in tree-ring chronologies and other regional mean timeseries. Dendrochronologia 15:89–99
Pederson N, Hessl AE, Baatarbileg N, Anchukaitis KJ, Cosmo DN (2014) Pluvials, droughts, the Mongol empire, and modern Mongolia. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 111(12):4375–4379
Piao SL, Zhang XP, Chen AP, Liu Q, Lian X, Wang XH, Peng SS, Wu XC (2019) The impacts of climate extremes on the terrestrial carbon cycle: a review. Sci China Earth Sci 62:1–13
Rydval M, Loader NJ, Gunnarson BE, Druckenbrod DL, Linderholm HW, Moreton SG, Wood CV, Wilson R (2017) Reconstructing 800 years of summer temperatures in Scotland from tree rings. Clim Dyn 49:1–24
Sarris D, Christodoulakis DK, Rner C (2011) Impact of recent climatic change on growth of low elevation eastern Mediterranean forest trees. Clim Chang 106(2):203–223
Schuster R, Oberhuber W (2013) Drought sensitivity of three co-occurring conifers within a dry inner Alpine environment. Trees 27(1):61–69
Schweingruber FH (1996) Tree rings and environment: dendroecology. Stuttgart, Vienna Paul Haupt, Bern, pp 1–609
Shi YF, Shen YP, Kang ES, Li DL, Ding YJ, Zhang GW, Hu RJ (2007) Recent and future climate change in Northwest China. Clim Chang 80(3–4):379–393
Shi Z, Thomey ML, Mowll W, Litvak M, Brunsell NA, Collins S, Pockman W, Smith MD, Knapp A, Luo YQ (2014) Differential effects of extreme drought on production and respiration: synthesis and modeling analysis. Biogeosciences 11(3):621–633
Siebert L, Simkin T (2013) Volcanoes of the world: an illustrated catalog of Holocene volcanoes and their eruptions. Smithsonian Institution, Global Volcanism Program Digital Information Series, GVP-3. URL: http://www.volcano.si.edu
Stokes MA, Smiley TL (1968) An introduction to tree-ring dating. University of Arizona Press, Tucson
Sun CF, Liu Y, Song HM, Cai QF, Li Q, Wang L, Mei RC, Fang CX (2018) Sunshine duration reconstruction in the southeastern Tibetan Plateau based on tree-ring width and its relationship to volcanic eruptions. Sci Total Environ 628-629:707–714
The World Meteorological Organization (2014) https://www.wmo.int/pages/index_zh.html
Thakur MP, Reich PB, Hobbie SE, Stefanski A, Rich R, Rice KE, Eddy WC, Eisenhauer N (2018) Reduced feeding activity of soil detritivores under warmer and drier conditions. Nat Clim Chang 8:75–78
Wang YB, Shi N (2001) Relation of North Atlantic Oscillation anomaly to China climate during 1951-1995. J Atmos Sci 24(3):315–322
Wang BL, Zhang MJ, Wei JL, Wang SJ, Li SS, Ma Q, Li XF, Pan SK (2013) Changes in extreme events of temperature and precipitation over Xinjiang, Northwest China, during 1960-2009. Quat Int 298:141–151
Wang T, Ren GY, Chen F, Yuan YJ (2015) An analysis of precipitation variations in the west-central Tianshan Mountains over the last 300 years. Quat Int 358:48–57
Wen KG, Shi YG, Ren YY (2006) The documents of Chinese meteorological disaster: volume of Xinjiang. Meteorological Publishers, Beijing (in Chinese)
Wigley TML, Briffa KR, Jones PD (1984) On the average value of correlated time series, with applications in dendroclimatology and hydrometeorology. J Appl Meteorol 23(2):201–213
Xu GB, Liu XH, Trouet V, Trouet V, Treydte K, Wu GJ, Chen T, Sun WZ, An WL, Wang WZ, Zeng XM, Qin DH (2018) Regional drought shifts (1710–2010) in east Central Asia and linkages with atmospheric circulation recorded in tree-ring δ18O. Clim Dyn 52:1–15
Xu G, Ren J, Liu X, Qin D, Chen T, Sun W (2014) Drought history inferred from tree ring 훿13 C and 훿 18 O in the central Tianshan Mountains of China and linkage with the North Atlantic Oscillation. Theor Appl Climatol 116(3):385–401
Yu SL, Yuan YJ, Wei WS, Chen F, Zhang TW, Shang HM, Zhang RB, Li Q (2013) A 352-year record of summer temperature reconstruction in the western Tianshan Mountains, China, as deduced from tree-ring density. Quat Res 80:158–166
Zhang RB, Wei WS, Shang HM, Yu SL, Gou XH, Qin L, Bolatov KM, Bulkajyr T (2019) A tree ring-based record of annual mass balance changes for the TS. Tuyuksuyskiy Glacier and its linkages to climate change in the Tianshan Mountains. Quat Sci Rev 205:10–21
Zhang RB, Yuan YJ, Gou XH, He Q, Shang HM, Zhang TW, Chen F, Ermenbaev B, Yu SL, Qin L, Fan ZA (2016) Tree-ring-based moisture variability in western Tianshan Mountains since A.D. 1882 and its possible driving mechanism. Agric For Meteorol 218:267–276
Zhang TW, Zhang RB, Yuan YJ, Gao YQ, Wei WS, Diushen M, He Q, Shang HM, Wang J (2015) Reconstructed precipitation on a centennial timescale from tree rings in the western Tien Shan Mountains, Central Asia. Quat Int 358:58–67
Zhang YP, Xu JL, Su W, Zhao XP, Xu XL (2018) Spring precipitation effects on formation of first row of earlywood vessels in Quercus variabilis at Qinling Mountain (China). Trees 29:1673–1686
Zhou BT, Wen QH, Xu Y, Song LC (2014) Projected changes in temperature and precipitation extremes in China by the CMIP5 multimodel ensembles. J Clim 27(17):6591–6611
Zhou BT, Xu Y, Wu J, Dong SY, Shi Y (2016) Changes in temperature and precipitation extreme indices over China: analysis of a high-resolution grid dataset. Int J Climatol 36(3):1051–1066
Zhu HF, Shao XM, Yin ZY, Huang L (2011) Early summer temperature reconstruction in the eastern Tibetan Plateau since AD 1440 using tree-ring width of Sabina tibetica. Theor Appl Climatol 106(1–2):45–53
Zscheischler J, Mahecha MD, Von Buttlar J, Harmeling S, Jung M, Rammig A, Randerson JT, Scholkopf B, Seneviratne SI, Tomelleri E, Zaehle S, Reichstein M (2014) A few extreme events dominate global interannual variability in gross primary production. Environ Res Lett 9(3):035001
Acknowledgments
We thank the anonymous referees for useful suggestions and comments.
Funding
This study was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Projects No. 41861006 and 41630750) and the Scientific Research Program of Higher Education Institutions of Gansu Province (2018C-02).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Electronic supplementary material
ESM 1
Correlations between the tree-ring width chronology of Schrenk spruce and the common climate indicators (mean temperature, mean minimum temperature, mean maximum temperature and precipitation) during 1960-2016. Dotted lines represent significance at the 0.05 level, and the long dashed lines represent significance at the 0.01 level. c: current year, p: previous year (PNG 966 kb)
ESM 2
Variation of annual TN90p5-9 (a) and tree-ring index and their trends (b); Basal area increment (BAI) curve and its tendency (c) during 1960-2016 (PNG 498 kb)
ESM 3
Information about the sampling sites and meteorological stations (DOCX 16 kb)
ESM 4
Definitions of extreme climate indices (DOCX 19 kb)
ESM 5
Extreme year of TN90p5–9 reconstruction series (DOCX 16 kb)
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Wang, S., Jiao, L., Jiang, Y. et al. Extreme climate historical variation based on tree-ring width record in the Tianshan Mountains of northwestern China. Int J Biometeorol 64, 2127–2139 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00484-020-02003-x
Received:
Revised:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00484-020-02003-x