A ring-width chronology from the southern slopes of the Qilian Mountains of China: A long-term context (255–2018 CE) for rapid warming over the northeastern Tibetan Plateau

• Published in: Palaeogeography, palaeoclimatology, palaeoecology palaeoclimatology, palaeoecology, 2024-10, Vol.651, p.112390, Article 112390
• Main Authors: Tian, Qinhua, Zhang, Yong, Tang, Fei, Qie, Jiazhi, Li, Xiumei
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: 2000 years; Qilian Mountains; Temperature reconstruction; Tree ring
• ISSN: 0031-0182
• DOI: 10.1016/j.palaeo.2024.112390

To better understand the temporal and spatial characteristics of climate change over the past 2000 years, reliable, high-resolution paleoclimatic proxies are required. In this study, we established a 1919 year-long ring-width chronology using Juniperus przewalskii from the southern slopes of the Qilian Mountains on the Tibetan Plateau. This chronology was used to reconstruct annual minimum temperature variations from September to August. The reconstruction model explains 57.3% of the temperature variations during the calibration period (1960–2018 CE). The reconstructed temperature series reveals many clear multidecadal fluctuations, with the past 50 years being the warmest since 255 CE. Additionally, we compared our reconstruction with others from Eurasia and found that all records show greater temperature consistency during cold events on annual to multidecadal scales compared to warm events, with cold events apparently linked to volcanic activity. •We developed the longest annual minimum temperature reconstruction in China.•The last 50 years have been the warmest of the past 1764 years.•Temperature consistency among different regions is more obvious during cold epochs.