A tree ring-based winter temperature reconstruction for the southeastern Tibetan Plateau since 1340 CE

Climatic change is exhibiting significant effects on the ecosystem of the Tibetan Plateau (TP), a climate-sensitive area. In particularly, winter frost, freezing events and snow avalanche frequently causing severe effects on ecosystem and social economy, however, few long-term winter temperature records or reconstructions hinder a better understanding on variations in winter temperature in the vast area of the TP. In this paper, we present a minimum winter (November-February) temperature reconstruction for the past 668 years based on a tree-ring network (12 new tree-ring chronologies) on the southeastern TP. The reconstruction exhibits decadal to inter-decadal temperature variability, with cold periods occurring in 1423-1508, 1592-1651, 1729-1768, 1798-1847, 1892-1927, and 1958-1981, and warm periods in 1340-1422, 1509-1570, 1652-1728, 1769-1797, 1848-1891, 1928-1957, and 1982-2007. As suggested by the comparisons with existing winter temperature series and spatial correlations with Climatic Research Unit gridded data, our reconstruction is reliable and indicative, and it can represent large-scale winter temperature variability on the southeastern TP. Furthermore, it shows an overall agreement with winter temperature from the northeastern TP on decadal to inter-decadal timescales. It also shows the possible effects of volcanic eruption and reducing solar activity on the winter temperature variability for the past six centuries on the southeastern TP.