Tree ring-based temperature reconstruction over the past 186 years for the Miyaluo Natural Reserve, western Sichuan Province of China

Abstract

The mountain range of western Sichuan Province of China runs roughly north to south defining the eastern edge of the Tibetan Plateau, where high-resolution climate records are essential for understanding regional climatic phenomena. Unfortunately, instrumental records in this region are too short in duration to confidently gauge the long-term variability of climate change. This paper presented a temperature reconstruction for the western Sichuan Province based on a tree ring width chronology developed from a tree line site (4,150 m) of the Faxon fir (Abies faxoniana) at the Miyaluo Natural Reserve. This reconstruction, spanning the years from 1824 to 2009, could account for 46.7 % of the actual variance of annual mean temperature during the calibration period from 1950 to 2002. The reconstruction could be essentially divided into two distinct subperiods: a relatively cold and stable period in the late nineteenth century and a relatively warm and unstable period in the twentieth century. Years 2001 and 1911 were the warmest (6.32 °C) and coldest (4.87 °C) years in the reconstruction, respectively, while 1960s (5.77 °C) and 1980s (5.08 °C) were the warmest and coldest ten consecutive years within the past 186 years. Close coupling observed with other temperature proxies (tree rings, ice cores, and glaciers) from surrounding areas emphasized the high degree of confidence in our reconstruction.