Reconstruction of summer temperature (June—August) at Mt. Helan, China, from tree-ring stable carbon isotope values since AD 1890

From stable carbon isotope analysis of tree-rings of Chinese pine (Pinus tabulaeformis) from Mt. Helan, China, we found that high-δ13C values were related to high mean temperatures from June to August (T68), and Iow-δ13C values corresponded to low T68. From these data, a transfer function has been used to reconstruct summer temperatures (T68) for the Mt. Helan region. The explained variance of reconstruction is 34.9% (F=15.01, p<0.001). The time period containing the highest summer temperatures in northern China (late 1920-1930s) was confirmed by our reconstruction. The data indicate that there is a tele-connection between summer temperatures in Mt. Helan area and sea-surface-temperatures in the tropical Pacific. The extreme low temperature periods around the years of 1920 and 1947 for Mt. Helan region correspond well to the cold climate in the tropical Pacific. Along with other analyses, this suggests that climate variations in the Mt. Helan region are driven not only by local events, but also by the global climate. Significant periodicities appearing in the reconstruction are 2.56 and 2.63 years.

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