Increased El Nino-Southern Oscillation sensitivity of tree growth on the southern Tibetan Plateau since the 1970s

0507009 - ÚVGZ 2020 RIV GB eng J - Journal Article
Cheng, X. - Lyu, L. - Büntgen, Ulf - Cherubini, P. - Qiu, H. - Zhang, Q.-B.
Increased El Nino-Southern Oscillation sensitivity of tree growth on the southern Tibetan Plateau since the 1970s.
International Journal of Climatology. Roč. 39, č. 8 (2019), s. 3465-3475. ISSN 0899-8418. E-ISSN 1097-0088
R&D Projects: GA MŠMT(CZ) LO1415
Research Infrastructure: CzeCOS II - 90061
Institutional support: RVO:86652079
Keywords : northeast monsoon rainfall * sea-surface temperature * interannual variability * forest mortality * pacific climate * enso * drought * events * rings * frequency * climate change * dendroclimatology * drought extremes * enso * Tibetan Plateau * tree rings
OECD category: Meteorology and atmospheric sciences
Impact factor: 3.928, year: 2019
Method of publishing: Limited access
https://rmets.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1002/joc.6032

El Nino-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) affects various components of the Earth's climate systems but its role on the Tibetan Plateau remains poorly understood. Hydroclimatic changes in Asia's water tower can have substantial effects on the functioning and productivity of agricultural and natural ecosystems, and thus the wellbeing of many millions of people. Here, we use well-replicated ring-width chronologies from 10 juniper sites on the southern Tibetan Plateau to associate variations in tree growth with ENSO events between 1645 and 2001 CE. An empirical orthogonal function (EOF) was applied to emphasize regional growth coherency and climate sensitivity. May-June moisture availability was found to be most important for ring-width formation, and most growth anomalies coincided with documentary evidence of hydroclimatic extremes. The superposed epoch analysis (SEA) and the composite analysis showed an increased ENSO sensitivity in tree growth on the southern Tibetan Plateau since the 1970s, possibly due to global warming, calls for integration of large-scale ocean-atmosphere climate feedbacks into regional forest management strategies in future warming scenarios.
Permanent Link: http://hdl.handle.net/11104/0298112