Reconstruction of alpine snowfall in southern Kazakhstan based on oxygen isotopes in tree rings

• Published in: Theoretical and applied climatology 2022-04, Vol.148 (1-2), p.727-737
• Main Authors: Qin, Li, Bolatov, Kainar, Shang, Huaming, Yu, Shulong, Gou, Xiaohua, Bagila, Maisupova, Bolatova, Aigerim, Ainur, Utebekova, Zhang, Ruibo
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Alpine environments; Aquatic Pollution; Arid regions; Atmospheric Protection/Air Quality Control/Air Pollution; Atmospheric Sciences; Cellulose; Chronology; Climate science; Climatology; Dendroclimatology; Earth and Environmental Science; Earth Sciences; growth rings; Isotopes; Kazakhstan; Original Paper; Oxygen; Oxygen isotopes; Picea schrenkiana; Reconstruction; Snow; Snowfall; Timberline; Tree rings; treeline; Trees; variance; Waste Water Technology; Water Management; Water Pollution Control; Winter; Winter precipitation
• ISSN: 0177-798X; 1434-4483
• DOI: 10.1007/s00704-022-03974-0

Alpine snowfall is an important source of water for arid areas. To investigate the history of alpine snowfall beyond instrumental records, we developed a tree-ring α-cellulose oxygen isotope (δ 18 O) chronology of Schrenk spruce ( Picea schrenkiana Fisch. et Mey) for the period 1850–2015 using samples from timberline in southern Kazakhstan. We find that the tree-ring δ 18 O chronology is significantly negatively correlated with alpine snowfall of the previous year. The δ 18 O chronology accounts for 46.4% of the observed variance in winter precipitation (1977–2014), and was therefore used to reconstruct alpine snowfall of the previous winter (WP). The alpine snowfall reconstruction reveals that the WP has increased significantly in southern Kazakhstan over the past 166 years, at a rate of 1.7 mm/decade. Prior to the 1910s, there was relatively less alpine snowfall; since the 1920s, there has been more. The WP reconstruction indicates that alpine snowfall increased during the 1860–1880s, 1910–1920s, 1940–1950s, and from the 1980s to present, and decreased during the other decades. Since the 1980s, alpine snowfall of southern Kazakhstan continues and increases rapidly.