Temperature variability over Dokriani glacier region, Western Himalaya, India

Long-term climate records which help decipher past climate variability and its impact are scarce in the tough terrain of the Himalayan region. Therefore, in order to fill the climate data gap and understand the glacier climate linkage, we developed a 231 year long (1785-2015 CE) March-June temperature record using ring-width chronology of Himalayan fir (Abies pindrow (Royle ex D.Don) Royle) for the Din Gad valley, Dokriani glacier region, Uttarkashi, Uttarakhand, in the Western Himalaya. The Din Gad, originating from the Dokriani glacier, is a meltwater river contributing to Bhagirathi catchment in the headwaters of the socio-economically vital Ganga River. The 21-year running mean of the temperature record showed 1978-1998 CE as the coldest period followed by 1925-1945 CE, and 1890-1910 CE as the warmest period followed by 1946-1966 CE over the entire time series. The reconstruction matches well with tree-ring based temperature records available from the Garhwal Himalaya. It also shows similarity to tree-ring based temperature reconstructions from the Western Himalaya, Nepal, Tibetan Plateau and Bhutan, thus displaying a regional scale climate signal. The low frequency fluctuation patterns of the March-June temperature also matches with Asia and Northern hemisphere temperature records. Reconstructed March-June temperature record showed a statistically negligible warming temperature trend during 1901-1989 CE in the 20th century. It, however, captured a warming spike from 1990s CE which continues rising into the 21st century, which is also evident in the Northern hemisphere temperature record. Moreover, temperature rise is not anomalous in the past 231 years and well within range of the rest of the series. The present temperature record exclusively from the glacier region revealed a strong linkage with the benchmark Dokriani glacier's winter mass balance (November-April) revealing mass loss (gain) episodes occurred in warm (cool) phases. This first such record from the glacier valleys in Ganga headwaters would be of great value at providing insight into past climate variability and glacier behaviour with respect to climate change in long term perspective, and thus would provide valuable information for water resource management in light of climate change.

Automated summary

In order to fill the data gap and understand the linkage between glacier and climate in the Himalayan region, a 231-year long temperature record was developed using the ring-width chronology of Himalayan fir. The reconstructed temperature record showed distinct periods of cold and warm phases, matching well with temperature records from neighboring regions and displaying a regional-scale climate signal. The record also revealed a negligible warming trend in the 20th century, followed by a spike in temperature rise in the 1990s, which is consistent with the Northern hemisphere temperature record. In addition, the temperature record from the glacier region showed a strong linkage with the winter mass balance of the benchmark Dokriani glacier.