A comparison of pre-millennium eruption (946 CE) and modern temperatures from tree rings in Changbai Mountain, Northeast Asia

Abstract. High-resolution temperature reconstructions in the previous millennium are limited in Northeast Asia, but they are important for assessing regional climate dynamics. Here, we present, for the first time, a 202-year reliable reconstruction of April temperature changes before the millennium volcanic eruption in 946 CE using tree rings of carbonized logs buried in the tephra in Changbai Mountain, Northeast Asia. The reconstructed temperature changes were consistent with previous reconstructions in China and the Northern Hemisphere. The influences of large-scale oscillations (e.g. El Niño–Southern Oscillation, ENSO) on temperature variability were not significantly different between the periods of 745–946 CE preceding the eruption and 1883–2012. However, compared to the palaeotemperature of the previous millennium, the temperature changes were more complex with stronger temperature fluctuations, more frequent temperature abruption, and a weaker periodicity of temperature variance during the last 130 years. These recent changes correspond to long-term anthropogenic influences on regional climate.

[1]  Y. Yi,et al.  Altitudinal trends in climate change result in radial growth variation of Pinus yunnanensis at an arid-hot valley of southwest China , 2021, Dendrochronologia.

[2]  Corinne Le Quéré,et al.  Climate Change 2013: The Physical Science Basis , 2013 .

[3]  Hong S. He,et al.  Sensitivity of recruitment and growth of alpine treeline birch to elevated temperature , 2021, Agricultural and Forest Meteorology.

[4]  T. Osborn,et al.  Causes of East Asian Temperature Multidecadal Variability Since 850 CE , 2018, Geophysical Research Letters.

[5]  Hong S. He,et al.  Warming‐induced upward migration of the alpine treeline in the Changbai Mountains, northeast China , 2018, Global change biology.

[6]  Allan Buras,et al.  A comment on the expressed population signal , 2017 .

[7]  Yuandong Zhang,et al.  Temperature signals in tree-ring width and divergent growth of Korean pine response to recent climate warming in northeast Asia , 2017, Trees.

[8]  C. Oppenheimer,et al.  Multi-proxy dating the ‘Millennium Eruption’ of Changbaishan to late 946 CE , 2017 .

[9]  V. Masson‐Delmotte,et al.  Climate response to the Samalas volcanic eruption in 1257 revealed by proxy records , 2017 .

[10]  Yuandong Zhang,et al.  A 414-year tree-ring-based April–July minimum temperature reconstruction andits implications for the extreme climate events, northeast China , 2016 .

[11]  J. Smerdon,et al.  Revising midlatitude summer temperatures back to A.D. 600 based on a wood density network , 2015 .

[12]  E. Fischer,et al.  Anthropogenic contribution to global occurrence of heavy-precipitation and high-temperature extremes , 2015 .

[13]  Peter Groenendijk,et al.  Detecting long‐term growth trends using tree rings: a critical evaluation of methods , 2015, Global change biology.

[14]  J. Esper,et al.  Extraterrestrial confirmation of tree-ring dating , 2014 .

[15]  S. Yun.  Volcanological Interpretation of Historical Eruptions of Mt. Baekdusan Volcano , 2013 .

[16]  Yu-jiang Yuan,et al.  A tree-ring based temperature reconstruction for the Kaiduhe River watershed, northwestern China, since A.D. 1680: Linkages to the North Atlantic Oscillation , 2013 .

[17]  Yu-jiang Yuan,et al.  A 352-year record of summer temperature reconstruction in the western Tianshan Mountains, China, as deduced from tree-ring density , 2013, Quaternary Research.

[18]  N. Graham,et al.  Continental-scale temperature variability during the past two millennia , 2013 .

[19]  Jiandong Xu,et al.  Climatic impact of the Millennium eruption of Changbaishan volcano in China: New insights from high‐precision radiocarbon wiggle‐match dating , 2013 .

[20]  Song Yang,et al.  Impacts of Different Types of El Niño on the East Asian Climate: Focus on ENSO Cycles , 2012 .

[21]  G. Burr,et al.  A wiggle-match age for the Millennium eruption of Tianchi Volcano at Changbaishan, Northeastern China , 2012 .

[22]  Xiaohua Wang,et al.  Seasonal temperature variability during the past 1600 years recorded in historical documents and varved lake sediment profiles from northeastern China , 2012 .

[23]  Yongbo Liu,et al.  Summer mean temperature variation from 1710–2005 inferred from tree-ring data of the Baimang Snow Mountains, northwestern Yunnan, China , 2011 .

[24]  Rajmund Przybylak,et al.  Tree rings of Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris L.) as a source of information about past climate in northern Poland , 2010, International Journal of Biometeorology.

[25]  F. Ljungqvist.  A new reconstruction of temperature variability in the extra‐tropical northern hemisphere during the last two millennia , 2010 .

[26]  Shao-yong Chen,et al.  Temporal and spatial variation of annual mean air temperature in arid and semiarid region in northwest China over a recent 46 year period , 2010 .

[27]  J. Overpeck,et al.  El Niño/Southern Oscillation and changes in the zonal gradient of tropical Pacific sea surface temperature over the last 1.2 ka , 2010 .

[28]  Z. Yin,et al.  Tree ring-based February–April temperature reconstruction for Changbai Mountain in Northeast China and its implication for East Asian winter monsoon , 2009 .

[29]  E. Liang,et al.  Tree-ring evidence of recent abnormal warming on the southeast Tibetan Plateau , 2009 .

[30]  M. Hughes,et al.  Proxy-based reconstructions of hemispheric and global surface temperature variations over the past two millennia , 2008, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

[31]  Yihui Ding,et al.  Detection, causes and projection of climate change over China: An overview of recent progress , 2007 .

[32]  D. Eckstein,et al.  Reconstruction of early spring temperature for central Japan from the tree‐ring widths of Hinoki cypress and its verification by other proxy records , 2006 .

[33]  Gong Zhi-qiang,et al.  Analysis of features of climate change of Huabei area and the global climate change based on heuristic segmentation algorithm , 2006 .

[34]  K. Holmgren,et al.  Highly variable Northern Hemisphere temperatures reconstructed from low- and high-resolution proxy data , 2005, Nature.

[35]  Aslak Grinsted,et al.  Nonlinear Processes in Geophysics Application of the Cross Wavelet Transform and Wavelet Coherence to Geophysical Time Series , 2022 .

[36]  Michael E. Mann,et al.  Global surface temperatures over the past two millennia , 2003 .

[37]  R. Sparks,et al.  Three active volcanoes in China and their hazards , 2003 .

[38]  Shi Yafeng,et al.  General characteristics of temperature variation in China during the last two millennia , 2002 .

[39]  Edward R. Cook,et al.  Low-Frequency Signals in Long Tree-Ring Chronologies for Reconstructing Past Temperature Variability , 2002, Science.

[40]  H. Stanley,et al.  Scale invariance in the nonstationarity of human heart rate. , 2000, Physical review letters.

[41]  H. Schmincke,et al.  Volatile emission during the eruption of Baitoushan Volcano (China/North Korea) ca. 969 AD , 2000 .

[42]  M. Hughes,et al.  Northern hemisphere temperatures during the past millennium: Inferences, uncertainties, and limitations , 1999 .

[43]  Glen M. MacDonald,et al.  Tree Rings and Environment: Dendroecology. By F. H. SCHWEINGRUBER. 24·5×16·5 cm. Pp. 609. Berne, Switzerland: Paul Haupt, 1996. Price h/b: DM 66.00, ISBN 3 258 05458 4. , 1998 .

[44]  Colin Price,et al.  El Niño Chaos: The role of noise and stochastic resonance on the ENSO cycle , 1998 .

[45]  Fritz H. Schweingruber,et al.  Tree rings and environment dendroecology , 1997 .

[46]  D. Parker,et al.  El Nino - Southern Oscillation & Climatic Variability , 1996 .

[47]  Edward R. Cook,et al.  SPATIAL REGRESSION METHODS IN DENDROCLIMATOLOGY: A REVIEW AND COMPARISON OF TWO TECHNIQUES , 1994 .

[48]  Edward R. Cook,et al.  Methods of Dendrochronology , 1990 .

[49]  Malcolm K. Hughes,et al.  Reconstructing Summer Temperatures in Northern Fennoscandinavia Back to A.D. 1700 Using Tree-Ring Data from Scots Pine , 1988 .

[50]  T. Wigley,et al.  On the Average Value of Correlated Time Series, with Applications in Dendroclimatology and Hydrometeorology , 1984 .

[51]  M. Menzies,et al.  Clarifying the distal to proximal tephrochronology of the Millennium (B–Tm) eruption, Changbaishan Volcano, northeast China , 2016 .

[52]  Sarah Eichmann,et al.  Tree Rings And Climate , 2016 .

[53]  Jinliang Gao,et al.  Distribution, geochemistry and age of the Millennium eruptives of Changbaishan volcano, Northeast China — A review , 2014, Frontiers of Earth Science.

[54]  W. Winiwarter,et al.  Summary for policy makers , 2011 .

[55]  Zhu Yan-feng.  ANALYSIS OF THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN THE CHINA ANOMALOUS CLIMATE VARIATION AND ENSO CYCLE ON THE QUASI-FOUR-YEAR SCALE , 2003 .

[56]  C. Torrence,et al.  A Practical Guide to Wavelet Analysis. , 1998 .

[57]  E. Cook.  A time series analysis approach to tree-ring standardization , 1985 .

[58]  R. Holmes.  Computer-Assisted Quality Control in Tree-Ring Dating and Measurement , 1983 .