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Temperature reconstruction and volcanic eruption signal from tree-ring width and maximum latewood density over the past 304 years in the southeastern Tibetan Plateau

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Abstract

This study presents a 304-year mean July–October maximum temperature reconstruction for the southeastern Tibetan Plateau based on both tree-ring width and maximum latewood density data. The reconstruction explained 58% of the variance in July–October maximum temperature during the calibration period (1958–2005). On the decadal scale, we identified two prominent cold periods during AD 1801–1833 and 1961–2003 and two prominent warm periods during AD 1730–1800 and 1928–1960, which are consistent with other reconstructions from the nearby region. Based on the reconstructed temperature series and volcanic eruption chronology, we found that most extreme cold years were in good agreement with major volcanic eruptions, such as 1816 after the Tambora eruption in 1815. Also, clusters of volcanic eruptions probably made the 1810s the coldest decade in the past 300 years. Our results indicated that fingerprints of major volcanic eruptions can be found in the reconstructed temperature records, while the responses of regional climate to these eruption events varied in space and time in the southeastern Tibetan Plateau.

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Acknowledgments

We would like to thank the editors and two anonymous reviewers for their constructive comments and suggestions that helped to improve the manuscript. We are grateful to Hong Yin and Mingyong Li for their help on tree-ring density experiments. We would also like to thank Qibin Zhang, Zexin Fan, Lily Wang, and Mingyong Li for providing their data for comparison. This study was supported by grants from the National Natural Science Foundation (Grant No. 41430528 and 41571194) and University of San Diego (FGR #2016-17).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Key Laboratory of Land Surface Pattern and Simulation, Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100101, China

    Mingqi Li, Zhi-Yong Yin & Xuemei Shao

  2. National Climate Centre, China Meteorological Administration, Beijing, 100081, China

    Lei Huang

  3. Department of Environmental and Ocean Sciences, University of San Diego, San Diego, CA, 92110, USA

    Zhi-Yong Yin

  4. Chinese Academy of Sciences Center for Excellence in Tibetan Plateau Earth System Sciences, Beijing, 100101, China

    Xuemei Shao

  5. University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049, China

    Xuemei Shao

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  1. Mingqi Li
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Correspondence to Lei Huang.

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Li, M., Huang, L., Yin, ZY. et al. Temperature reconstruction and volcanic eruption signal from tree-ring width and maximum latewood density over the past 304 years in the southeastern Tibetan Plateau. Int J Biometeorol 61, 2021–2032 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00484-017-1395-0

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