Drought reconstruction since 1796 CE based on tree-ring widths in the upper Heilongjiang (Amur) River basin in Northeast Asia and its linkage to Pacific Ocean climate variability

CHEN, FENG; HADAD, MARTÍN; XU, YANG; WANG, SHIJIE; ROIG, FIDEL; ZHANG, HELI; HU, MAO

Climate of the Past

EGU

Lugar: Munich; Año: 2023 vol. 19 p. 2079 - 2092

The economic and environmental impacts of per- sistent droughts in East Asia are of growing concern, and therefore it is important to study the cyclicity and causes of these regional droughts. The self-calibrating Palmer drought severity index (scPDSI) has been extensively employed to describe the severity of regional drought, and several scPDSI reconstructions based on tree rings have been produced. We compiled a tree-ring chronology for Hailar pine (Pinus sylvestris var. mongolica) from two sites in the Hailar re- gion in the upper Heilongjiang (Amur) River basin. Anal- ysis of the climate response revealed that scPDSI was the primary factor limiting tree ring growth from May to July. The mean May to July scPDSI in the Hailar region since 1796 was reconstructed from the tree-ring width chronology. The results of spatial correlation analysis revealed that the reconstructed scPDSI in this region responded significantly to climate change. Analysis of the synoptic climatology in- dicated that the drought in the upper Heilongjiang (Amur) River basin is closely related to El Niño–Southern Oscilla- tion (ENSO) and the Silk Road teleconnection. The results of atmospheric water cycle analysis show that water vapor transport processes are the dominant factor in the develop- ment of drought in this region.