Climate warming is significantly influenced by rising summer maximum temperatures: insights from tree-ring evidence of the Western Tianshan Mountains, China

As one of the regions most affected by global cli-mate warming,the Tianshan mountains has experienced sev-eral ecological crises,including retreating glaciers and water deficits.Climate warming in these mountains is considered mainly to be caused by increases in minimum temperatures and winter temperatures,while the influence of maximum temperatures is unclear.In this study,a 300-year tree-ring chronology developed from the Western Tianshan Moun-tains was used to reconstruct the summer(June-August)maximum temperature(T_(max6-8))variations from 1718 to 2017.The reconstruction explained 53.1% of the variance in the observed T_(max6-8).Over the past 300 years,the T_(max6-8)reconstruction showed clear interannual and decadal vari-abilities.There was a significant warming trend(0.18°C/decade)after the 1950s,which was close to the increasing rates of the minimum and mean temperatures.The increase in maximum temperature was also present over the whole Tianshan mountains and its impact on climate warming has increased.The T_(max6-8) variations in the Western Tianshan mountains were influenced by frequent volcanic eruptions combined with the influence of solar activity and the sum-mer North Atlantic Oscillation.This study reveals that cli-mate warming is significantly influenced by the increase in maximum temperatures and clarifies possible driving mech-anisms of temperature variations in the Western Tianshan mountains which should aid climate predictions.

Climate warming is significantly influenced by rising summer maximum temperatures:insights from tree-ring evidence of the Western Tianshan Mountains,China

As one of the regions most affected by global climate warming,the Tianshan mountains has experienced several ecological crises,including retreating glaciers and water deficits.Climate warming in these mountains is considered mainly to be caused by increases in minimum temperatures and winter temperatures,while the influence of maximum temperatures is unclear.In this study,a 300-year tree-ring chronology developed from the Western Tianshan Mountains was used to reconstruct the summer(June-August)maximum temperature(Tmax6-8) variations from 1718 to2017.The reconstruction explained 53.1% of the variance in the observed Tmax6-8.Over the past 300 years,the Tmax6-8reconstruction showed clear interannual and decadal variabilities.There was a significant warming trend(0.18 ℃/decade) after the 1950s,which was close to the increasing rates of the minimum and mean temperatures.The increase in maximum temperature was also present over the whole Tianshan mountains and its impact on climate warming has increased.The Tmax6-8variations in the Western Tianshan mountains were influenced by frequent volcanic eruptions combined with the influence of solar activity and the summer North Atlantic Oscillation.This study reveals that climate warming is significantly influenced by the increase in maximum temperatures and clarifies possible driving mechanisms of temperature variations in the Western Tianshan mountains which should aid climate predictions.

Why Does Extreme Rainfall Occur in Central China during the Summer of 2020 after a Weak El Niño?

In summer 2020,extreme rainfall occurred throughout the Yangtze River basin,Huaihe River basin,and southern Yellow River basin,which are defined here as the central China(CC)region.However,only a weak central Pacific(CP)El Niño happened during winter 2019/20,so the correlations between the El Niño–Southern Oscillation(ENSO)indices and ENSO-induced circulation anomalies were insufficient to explain this extreme precipitation event.In this study,reanalysis data and numerical experiments are employed to identify and verify the primary ENSO-related factors that cause this extreme rainfall event.During summer 2020,unusually strong anomalous southwesterlies on the northwest side of an extremely strong Northwest Pacific anticyclone anomaly(NWPAC)contributed excess moisture and convective instability to the CC region,and thus,triggered extreme precipitation in this area.The tropical Indian Ocean(TIO)has warmed in recent decades,and consequently,intensified TIO basinwide warming appears after a weak El Niño,which excites an extremely strong NWPAC via the pathway of the Indo-western Pacific Ocean capacitor(IPOC)effect.Additionally,the ENSO event of 2019/20 should be treated as a fast-decaying CP El Niño rather than a general CP El Niño,so that the circulation and precipitation anomalies in summer 2020 can be better understood.Last,the increasing trend of tropospheric temperature and moisture content in the CC region after 2000 is also conducive to producing heavy precipitation.

A wetness index derived from tree-rings in the Mt. Yishan area of China since 1755 AD and its agricultural implications

Dendroclimatological techniques were employed to investigate the relationship between Chinese Pinus(Pinus tabulaeformis Carr.) growth and climatic variability in the Mt.Yishan region of Shandong Province, China, over the past253 years. Using regression analysis, the wetness index(WI)was reconstructed for the Mt. Yishan area for the period1755–2007 AD based on tree-ring widths; predictor variables accounted for 40 % of the variance. The reconstructed timeseries displayed an increasing trend after the late 1960 s. Both the estimated and the observed WI for May–August were better correlated with precipitation than temperature during the period 1958–2007 AD, indicating that the contribution of precipitation to the WI was larger than temperature in the study area. The reconstructed WI was compared with the dryness/wetness index of China and land areas that were affected by droughts and floods using the agricultural statistics for Shandong Province. In addition, the WI time-series corresponded well with the peanut yield in Shandong Province at high frequency, which may be reasonable in the context of agriculture in Shandong. The 3-, 5- to 6- and 9- to10-year periodicities detected in the time-series suggested that the reconstructed WI in the Mt. Yishan area may be related to large-scale climate variations.

Divergence of tree-ring-based drought reconstruction between the individual sampling site and the Monsoon Asia Drought Atlas: an example from Guancen Mountain

To evaluate the applicability of the Standardized Precipitation-Evapotranspiration Index （SPEI） and the self-calibrated Palmer Drought Severity Index （scPDSI） to paleoclimate reconstructions in the east Asian summer monsoon region, we used a 194-year tree-ring width chronology from Guancen Mountain, Shanxi Province, China, to investigate its correlation with SPEI and scPDSI, respectively. The results indicated scPDSI as a robust drought index that could be reconstructed from tree-ring width on Guancen Mountain other hydroclimate-related Significant correlations with series illustrated that our reconstruction captured common variations of hydroclimate in the surrounding areas. Additionally, our reconstruction showed significant correlation with nearby grid points of the Monsoon Asia Drought Atlas （MADA）. However, while unprecedented drying trend existed during the past several decades in MADA, it was not represented in our reconstruction or in instrumental scPDSI/Dai-PDSI. This may imply that MADA overestimated drought severity during the past several decades in our study area; this overestimation was probably caused by an insufficient spatiotemporal distribution of the tree-ring network used by MADA. Therefore, more drought reconstructions based on individual sampling sites in eastern Asia are necessary to gain a thorough understanding of the Asian Monsoon climate variability.