Tree-ring based may-july temperature reconstruction since AD 1630 on the Western Loess Plateau, China.

Tree-ring samples from Chinese Pine (Pinus tabulaeformis Carr.) collected at Mt. Shimen on the western Loess Plateau, China, were used to reconstruct the mean May-July temperature during AD 1630-2011. The regression model explained 48% of the adjusted variance in the instrumentally observed mean May...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Huiming Song, Yu Liu, Qiang Li, Na Gao, Yongyong Ma, Yanhua Zhang
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Public Library of Science (PLoS) 2014-01-01
Series:PLoS ONE
Online Access:http://europepmc.org/articles/PMC3972095?pdf=render
Description
Summary:Tree-ring samples from Chinese Pine (Pinus tabulaeformis Carr.) collected at Mt. Shimen on the western Loess Plateau, China, were used to reconstruct the mean May-July temperature during AD 1630-2011. The regression model explained 48% of the adjusted variance in the instrumentally observed mean May-July temperature. The reconstruction revealed significant temperature variations at interannual to decadal scales. Cool periods observed in the reconstruction coincided with reduced solar activities. The reconstructed temperature matched well with two other tree-ring based temperature reconstructions conducted on the northern slope of the Qinling Mountains (on the southern margin of the Loess Plateau of China) for both annual and decadal scales. In addition, this study agreed well with several series derived from different proxies. This reconstruction improves upon the sparse network of high-resolution paleoclimatic records for the western Loess Plateau, China.
ISSN:1932-6203