Moisture dipole over the Tibetan Plateau during the past five and a half centuries

Qi-Bin Zhang (), Michael N. Evans and Lixin Lyu
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Qi-Bin Zhang: State Key Laboratory of Vegetation and Environmental Change, Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences
Michael N. Evans: University of Maryland
Lixin Lyu: State Key Laboratory of Vegetation and Environmental Change, Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences

Nature Communications, 2015, vol. 6, issue 1, 1-6

Abstract: Abstract The South Asian Monsoon and mid-latitude Westerlies are two important controls on Tibetan Plateau (TP) fresh water resources. Understanding their interaction requires long-term information on spatial patterns in moisture variability on the TP. Here we develop a network of 23 moisture-sensitive tree-ring chronologies from major juniper forests in a north–south transect on the eastern TP. Over the past five and a half centuries, we find that these chronologies cluster into two groups, North and South, of ∼33° N. Southern and northern regional chronology subsets are positively and significantly correlated with May–June Palmer Drought Severity Indices (PDSI). The meridional moisture stress gradient reconstructed from these data suggests substantial stochastic variation, yet persistent moisture stress differences are observed between 1463–1502 CE and 1693–1734 CE. Identification of these patterns provides clues linking them with forced or intrinsic tropical–extratropical interactions and thus facilitates studies of interannual–decadal dipole variations in hydroclimate over the TP.

Date: 2015
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DOI: 10.1038/ncomms9062

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