PROGRESS IN GEOGRAPHY ›› 2016, Vol. 35 ›› Issue (11): 1397-1410.doi: 10.18306/dlkxjz.2016.11.010

• Orginal Article • Previous Articles     Next Articles

Research progress of dry-wet climate reconstruction by tree ring in China

Yajun WANG(), Mingqi LI*()   

  1. Key Laboratory of Land Surface Pattern and Simulation, Institute of Geographic Sciences andNatural Resources Research, CAS, Beijing 100101, China
  • Online:2016-11-25 Published:2016-11-25
  • Contact: Mingqi LI E-mail:hbyjwang@163.com;limq@igsnrr.ac.cn
  • Supported by:
    Key Program of National Natural Science Foundation of China, No.41430528

Abstract:

With accurate dating, high resolution, and high continuity, tree-ring data become one of the important sources for reconstructing the climate change. The sampling sites distribute widely, many tree species were selected, and the chronologies are very long for studying the relationship of the tree ring and dry-wet changes in China. Significant progress has been made in analyzing the response of tree radial growth to dry-wet changes and reconstructing historical dry-wet climate change based on various research proxies, such as tree-ring width, density, and stable isotopes. In general, moisture condition, especially in the spring and autumn and annual humidity are the important influencing factors of tree-radial growth in low altitudes of arid and semi-arid areas. For trees in the upper limit of forest vegetation, relatively cold-wet areas, and the subtropical climate zone in China, the correlation between tree growth and precipitation was weak. Dry-wet climate reconstruction based on tree-ring data in China is plentiful. Up to now, many precipitation series of more than 1000a or even over 2000a were reconstructed in a large number of regions. The longest tree-ring chronology is 4500a, and the longest precipitation reconstruction sequence is 3500a. The brief summary of selected tree-ring results in this article will provide references and help for tree-ring sampling and dry-wet climate reconstruction.

Key words: tree ring, indicator, response, dry-wet change, paleoclimatic reconstruction, research progress, China