Tree ring width‐based January–March mean minimum temperature reconstruction from Larix gmelinii in the Greater Khingan Mountains, China since AD 1765

• Published in: International Journal of Climatology
• Main Authors: Jiang, Yangao, Liu, Chuan, Zhang, Junhui, Han, Shijie, Coombs, Cassius E. O., Wang, Xiaoguang, Wang, Junwei, Hao, Lin, Dong, Shengzhong
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Wiley 2020
• Subjects: Pacific; North Atlantic; North Atlantic oscillation
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/joc.6733; https://api.wiley.com/onlinelibrary/tdm/v1/articles/10.1002%2Fjoc.6733; https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1002/joc.6733; https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full-xml/10.1002/joc.6733; https://rmets.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1002/joc.6733

Abstract A ring‐width chronology of Larix gmelinii (LG) was developed in the northern Greater Khingan Mountains region of China. The response function analyses revealed that the local mean minimum temperature of January–March ( T 1–3 ) was the most limiting factor affecting the radial growth of LG trees. Based on correlation analysis, a reconstructed T 1–3 series from 1765 to 2013 was produced using standard ring‐width chronology. The reconstruction explained 41.2% of the total variance in recorded monthly mean minimum temperatures from 1960 to 2013. The reconstructed T 1–3 series had similar variability when compared with the May–September mean temperature reconstruction in Inner Mongolia (IM) and the February–March mean minimum temperature reconstruction in Yichun (YC). This reconstructed T 1–3 series also captured the severe snow disaster and cold wave events recorded from historical documents in Heilongjiang and Inner Mongolia. Spatial correlations between reconstructed series and gridded temperature data also provided a high level of confidence. In addition, significant relationships between the reconstructed T 1–3 series and the Pacific Decadal Oscillation (PDO), El Niño–Southern Oscillation (ENSO), North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO), solar activity, indicated that the T 1–3 variation might be influenced by large‐scale ocean–atmosphere interactions.