A tree-ring–based summer (June–July) minimum temperature reconstruction for the western Kunlun Mountains since AD 1681

Abstract

Knowledge of past climatic variability for the Tibetan Plateau (TP), especially the northwestern part of it, is still limited due to the lack of long-term meteorological records. Within this study, we developed a summer (June–July) minimum temperature reconstruction since 1681 based on annual tree-ring width of Schrenk’s spruce (Picea schrenkiana Fisch. et Mey.) from a humid timberline on the western Kunlun Mountains. Our reconstruction passed the statistical calibration and validation tests, and accounted for 37.69% of the variance for the instrumental record during the period 1960–1996. The reconstruction mainly exhibited annual to decadal temperature variability, with cold periods in 1694–1696, 1745–1749, 1823–1824, and 1915–1921, and warm periods in 1755–1760, 1795–1799, and 1894–1896. Spatial correlations and comparisons with the Asia summer temperature reconstructions further verified our temperature reconstruction and its capability to serve as a proxy for large-scale temperature variability on the northwestern TP. Our results clearly indicate the great potential to perform dendrochronological studies on the western Kunlun Mountains.