Reconstructed springtime (March-June) precipitation tracked by tree rings dating back to 1760 CE in the Qinling-Bashan mountainous area

In recent decades, considerable advances have been made in dendroclimatic reconstruction in the eastern monsoon region of China. However, understanding of long-term hydroclimatic changes has not been comprehensive due to the complexity of the regional geography in China's north-south transitional zone. Growth-climate response analysis indicated that springtime precipitation is the main factor limiting the radial growth of pine trees in the Qinling-Bashan mountainous area. Based on the three tree ring chronologies distributed in the southeast of Shaanxi Province, we developed a March-June precipitation reconstruction spanning 1760-2020 CE for the Qinling-Bashan mountainous area. Precipitation reconstruction accounts for 40.6% of the total precipitation variance during the instrumental period 1955-2016. Spatial correlation analysis indicated that the precipitation reconstruction recorded similar common precipitation signals for the eastern Qinling Mountains and the Yangtze-Huai River Basin. The results of the superposed epoch analysis (SEA) revealed that low precipitation was one of the main causes of severe drought and locust plague events. The preliminary synoptic climatology analysis showed that our reconstructed precipitation is closely linked to the El Nin tilde o-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) and Indian Ocean Dipole (IOD) variability.

Automated summary

Considerable advances have been made in dendroclimatic reconstruction in the eastern monsoon region of China in recent decades. Springtime precipitation has been identified as the main factor limiting the radial growth of pine trees in the Qinling-Bashan mountainous area. A precipitation reconstruction spanning 1760-2020 CE was developed based on tree ring chronologies in the southeast of Shaanxi Province. The reconstruction accounted for a significant portion of the total precipitation variance during the instrumental period. The analysis also revealed the impact of low precipitation on severe drought and locust plague events, and the correlation between the reconstructed precipitation and El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) and Indian Ocean Dipole (IOD) variability.