Weakening of annual temperature cycle over the Tibetan Plateau since the 1870s.
- Duan J State Key Laboratory of Vegetation and Environmental Change, Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 100093 Beijing, China.
- Esper J Department of Geography, Johannes Gutenberg University, 55099 Mainz, Germany.
- Büntgen U Swiss Federal Research Institute WSL, 8903 Birmensdorf, Switzerland.
- Li L Chinese Academy of Meteorological Sciences, 100081 Beijing, China.
- Xoplaki E Department of Geography, Justus Liebig University of Giessen, 35390 Giessen, Germany.
- Zhang H Department of Geography, Justus Liebig University of Giessen, 35390 Giessen, Germany.
- Wang L Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 100101 Beijing, China.
- Fang Y National Climate Center, China Meteorological Administration, 100081 Beijing, China.
- Luterbacher J Department of Geography, Justus Liebig University of Giessen, 35390 Giessen, Germany.
- 2017-01-18
Published in:
- Nature communications. - 2017
English
The annual cycle of extra-tropical surface air temperature is an important component of the Earth's climate system. Over the past decades, a reduced amplitude of this mode has been observed in some regions. Although attributed to anthropogenic forcing, it remains unclear when dampening of the annual cycle started. Here we use a residual series of tree-ring width and maximum latewood density from the Tibetan Plateau >4,000 m asl to reconstruct changes in temperature seasonality over the past three centuries. The new proxy evidence suggests that the onset of a decrease in summer-to-winter temperature difference over the Tibetan Plateau occurred in the 1870s. Our results imply that the influence of anthropogenic forcing on temperature seasonality might have started in the late nineteenth century, and that future human influence may further contribute to a weakening of the annual temperature cycle, with subsequent effects on ecosystem functioning and productivity.
- Language
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- English
- Open access status
- gold
- Identifiers
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- DOI 10.1038/ncomms14008
- PMID 28094791
- Persistent URL
- https://fredi.hepvs.ch/global/documents/208660
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