The 1920S drought recorded by tree rings and historical documents in the semi-arid and arid areas of Northern China

Using a network of tree-ring data, we show that there had been significant growth decline in the 1920s and early 1930s throughout a wide area of northern China. This growth depression is indicative of a severe and sustained drought in the 1920s and early 1930s, which was then confirmed with a variety of historical and instrumental records including hydrological, meteorological, and documentary evidence. The 1920s drought had a devastating effect not only on agricultural productivity, hydrological resources and society in the affected areas, but also on natural vegetation, as inferred from the tree-ring network and historical records. This research offers a picture of the drought calamity during the 1920s and early 1930s in northern China, and demonstrates the potential to identify spatial anomalies of large-scale drought using tree-ring networks in the semi-arid and arid areas of northern China.