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Knowledge of natural long-term drought variability is essential for water resource management and planning, especially in arid and sub-arid regions of the world. In the eastern Qilian Mountains of China, long-term drought variability based on high-resolution proxy records such as tree-ring data are still scarce to date. Here we present a new tree-ring chronology from the eastern Qilian Mountains which provides a valuable 1,002-year record (1009-2010 CE) of drought variability. The new reconstruction of June-July 5-month scale standardized precipitation and evapotranspiration index is the first millennium tree-ring estimate of past climate developed in the eastern Qilian Mountains. The record shows that this region has experienced several persistent droughts and pluvials over the past millennium, with significantly drier climate during the fifteenth century and dramatic wetting since the nineteenth century. The low frequency generally agrees with other nearby studies based on both tree-ring data and other proxy data. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a 457-year reconstruction of precipitation in the southeastern Qinghai-Tibet Plateau using tree-ring records. Tree-ring samples were collected from the Hengduan Mountains in the southeastern part of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, China. A nearly 500-year chronology was developed using tree-ring width records. Correlation analysis shows moisture is the main factor limiting tree growth in this region. Ring-widths were significantly positively correlated with the Palmer Drought Severity Index (PDSI) and precipitation in many months. The highest correlation coefficient was found between the annual growth of trees and precipitation from the previous September to the current June (0.738). Based on this relationship, we reconstructed the precipitation history from 1509 to 2006. The reconstruction explains 54.4% ( R=53.5%, N=49, F=56.12) of the actual precipitation variation during the calibration period (1958-2006). During the reliable period of the reconstruction (1549-2006), some low-frequency climate signals are included, indicating this region has been getting wetter in the last 20 years. The reconstruction documents six apparently dry and five pluvial periods and the 17th century dry period lasted longer than any other. When compared with other recent studies, this study and these earlier reconstructions show a similar trend in the variation of drought and pluvial. Further spatial correlation analysis confirms that the reconstructed precipitation adequately represents the rainfall history of the entire Hengduan Mountain area. The Multi-taper method, a type of spectral analysis, reveals that precipitation in this area had significant ( P<0.01) spectral peaks at 3-5 a, 60 a and 79-85 a. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Tree-line ecotones are strongly climatically limited and serve as potential monitors of climate change. We employed annual growth increment from tree-rings, and tree density and age structure data derived from two Juniperus przewalskii tree-line sites in the eastern part of the Qilian Mountains, northeastern Tibetan Plateau, to detect the responses of tree growth and population dynamics to climate change. High temperature favors tree growth and is associated with increased tree density at tree-line, and an advance in tree-line position. Significantly positive correlations were found between ring-width and mean monthly air temperatures in current and previous June, July and August. Tree recruitment began to increase rapidly at the two sites after the Little Ice Age, but then decreased starting in the 1970s. The number of trees established coincides with temperature changes. The warming trend after the Little Ice Age favors increases of tree density and an advance of tree-line. The majority of trees established during the period of 1931–1970, which coincides well with the rapid radial growth of the trees. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]