February-May temperature reconstruction based on tree-ring widths of Abies fargesii from the Shennongjia area in central China

Spatial Distribution, Pollution, and Ecological Risk Assessment of Metal(loid)s in Multiple Spheres of the Shennongjia Alpine Critical Zone, Central China

The development of Earth's critical zone concept has strengthened the capacity of environmental science to better solve real-world problems, such as metal(loid) pollution in the remote alpine areas. The selected metal(loid) contents in soil, moss, and water were investigated to explore the geochemical distribution patterns, pollution levels, and potential ecological risks of metal(loid)s in the Shennongjia (SNJ) alpine critical zone of central China. The distribution of metal(loid)s in different spheres had horizontal and vertical differences. The maximum V, Ni, and Zn contents in water occurred at the sampling sites close to the Hohhot-Beihai Highway, while Dajiuhu Lake had the maximum Cu, Cr, and Mn contents. Most metal(loid) contents in the mosses showed an increasing trend from the northeast low-altitude area to the southwest high-altitude area, while As, Co, V, Ni, Cr, and Zn in soil decreased significantly with altitude and were enriched near the service areas and the highway. The contents of water Co and Ni, soil Cu and Mn, and moss As were evenly distributed and showed no significant differences with altitude. The enrichment factors, pollution index, Nemerow integrated pollution index, geo-accumulation index, heavy metal pollution index, contamination factor, and potential ecological risk index (PERI) were used to assess the pollution levels and ecological risks of SNJ soil, water, and atmosphere. The overall pollution levels of SNJ soil, moss, and water were low to moderate, low, and low, respectively. Soil V, Cu, Zn, moss As, Co, V, and Dajiuhu Lake water Mn were the main pollution factors. The ecological risks in the three spheres of the SNJ alpine critical zone were low to moderate, and As, Co, and V were the most critical potential ecological risk factors. The metal(loid)s pollution problem caused by the continuous development of tourism needs further attention.

Climate-Growth Relationships of Chinese Pine (Pinus tabulaeformis Carr.) at Mt. Shiren in Climatic Transition Zone, Central China

Tree ring data from the southern boundary of Chinese Pine (Pinus tabulaeformis Carr.) distribution where is the southern warm temperate margin, the paper analyzes the response of climate factors along north-south direction to tree growth. The results show that temperature and precipitation in May-June and relative moisture from March to June are main limiting factors on trees growth; however, the temperature in the south of the mountains and the moisture in the north of the mountains have relatively greater influence on trees' growth. Additionally, we also found that the regional scPDSIMJ (that is scPDSI in May-June) was the most significant and stable factor limiting tree growth to be used for reconstruction. The reconstructed scPDSIMJ revealed that there were 29 extremely dry years and 30 extremely wet years during 1801-2016, and it could represent the drought variation in central and eastern monsoon region. The variation exists in good agreement with the reconstructed PDSI for Mt. Shennong and the drought/wetness series in Zhengzhou. Further research found that the droughts of May-June in central China were mainly impacted by local temperature and moisture (including precipitation, soil moisture, potential evaporation and water pressure), and then by the northern Pacific Ocean and the northern Atlantic Ocean. These results may provide better understanding of May-June drought variation and service for agricultural production in central China.

Bioclimatic conditions of the winter months in Western Kazakhstan and their dynamics in relation to climate change

The territory of West Kazakhstan is an intensively developing region. The main oil and gas fields are concentrated there. In addition, this region is well-known as a region of nomad cattle breeding. Both of industry and agriculture demand a lot of employees, working in the open air in wintertime. Severe winter conditions, primary very low temperatures, and strong winds characterize the region. In this work, we calculated and analyzed the spatial and temporal distributions of effective temperatures in the region and their dynamics due to the global warming in the last decades. To calculate the equivalent temperature (WCET) was used the method of OFCM 2003. Nowadays, it is known as a common method for similar studies. It was shown that in the observed region, WCET is significantly lower than the ambient temperature. Repeatability of WCET, corresponding to «increasing risk», «high risk» is high in the main part of the region. Global warming in the region results in returning extremely high temperatures of the air, decreasing repeatability of the average gradation of WCET approximately on 4%, but there is no any visible changing repeatability of extreme WCET. Obtained results can be used for planning any construction work in the open air and agriculture branches.

Insights into the BRT (Boosted Regression Trees) Method in the Study of the Climate-Growth Relationship of Masson Pine in Subtropical China

Dendroclimatology and dendroecology have entered mainstream dendrochronology research in subtropical and tropical areas. Our study focused on the use of the chronology series of Masson pine (Pinus massoniana Lamb.), the most widely distributed tree species in the subtropical wet monsoon climate regions in China, to understand the tree growth response to ecological and hydroclimatic variability. The boosted regression trees (BRT) model, a nonlinear machine learning method, was used to explore the complex relationship between tree-ring growth and climate factors on a larger spatial scale. The common pattern of an asymptotic growth response to the climate indicated that the climate-growth relationship may be linear until a certain threshold. Once beyond this threshold, tree growth will be insensitive to some climate factors, after which a nonlinear relationship may occur. Spring and autumn climate factors are important controls of tree growth in most study areas. General circulation model (GCM) projections of future climates suggest that warming climates, especially temperatures in excess of those of the optimum growth threshold (as estimated by BRT), will be particularly threatening to the adaptation of Masson pine.

The 600-mm precipitation isoline distinguishes tree-ring-width responses to climate in China

The numerous temperature and precipitation reconstructions in China based on tree-ring-width data have played significant roles in furthering the understanding of past climate changes. However, the geographical variability in the responses of trees to climate variations in China remains largely undetermined. Here, we describe an important spatial boundary in the response of trees to climate variations, namely the 600-mm annual precipitation isoline. We found that, to the north of this line, tree-ring widths are usually positively correlated with precipitation and negatively correlated with growing-season temperature. To the south of this line, the tree-ring widths respond positively to temperature, and winter half-year temperatures are the main reconstructed parameters, especially on the third topographical step of China. We also found that precipitation reconstructions based on tree-ring data and the Palmer Drought Severity Index almost exclusively fall in the region of the 200- to 600-mm annual precipitation isolines, not other regions. Our findings indicate that, when using multiple tree-ring-width chronologies for large-scale past climate reconstructions, the climatic signal of each tree-ring-width series should be carefully considered.

Recent warming evidence inferred from a tree-ring-based winter-half year minimum temperature reconstruction in northwestern Yichang, South Central China, and its relation to the large-scale circulation anomalies

High-resolution winter temperature reconstructions in China are rare, yet vital for the comprehensive understanding of past climate change. In the present work, the first winter-half year minimum mean temperature from previous November to current April in northwestern Yichang, South Central China, was reconstructed back to 1875 based on tree-ring material. The reconstruction can explain 55 % of the variance over the calibration period during 1955-2011. The temperature maintained at comparatively low level before 1958, and an abnormal warming was seen since 1959. However, the warming trend stagnated after 2000 AD. 2001-2010 was the warmest decade not only during the instrumental period but also during the whole reconstructed period. The reconstruction indicates good spatial resemblance to other temperatures series in adjacent areas and Northern Hemisphere, yet the recent warming in this study is earlier and more prominent than that of Southeast China. This work also manifests that the winter-half year minimum temperature in study area has good agreement with summer (June-September) maximum temperature variation in Southeast China at decadal scale, except that the winter-half year warming in recent decades is more evident than summer. This reconstruction is not only useful in improving our knowledge of long-term temperature variation but also useful in predicting the tree growth dynamics in the future in the study area.