Tree growth–climate relationships of conifer trees and reconstruction of summer season Palmer Drought Severity Index (PDSI) at Pahalgam in Srinagar, India
Introduction
The available climate data from the western Himalaya is limited. Tree-ring records have excellent potential to extend climate analysis from meteorological records over the region. Tree-ring analysis in the Indian subcontinent, especially from the western and central parts of the Himalayan region, has been studied by many scientists (Hughes, 1992, Borgaonkar et al., 1994, Borgaonkar et al., 2009, Pant et al., 1995, Bhattacharyya et al., 1997, Bhattacharyya et al., 2006, Chaudhary and Bhattacharyya, 2000, Chaudhary and Bhattacharyya, 2002, Yadav and Singh, 2002, Bhattacharyya and Chaudhary, 2003, Yadav et al., 2006, Singh and Yadav, 2007, Bhattacharyya and Shah, 2009, Yadav, 2009). The millennium-long ring-width chronology of cedar from Garhwal Himalaya has been presented by Singh et al. (2004). However, all these studies are based on the relationship between ring-width index chronologies and climate variables such as rainfall and temperature of the region.
Other teak tree-ring width index chronologies from central and peninsular India revealed better response with moisture index and PDSI as compared to rainfall during different seasons (Borgaonkar et al., 2007, Borgaonkar et al., 2010, Ram et al., 2008, Ram et al., 2010, Ram et al., 2011a, Ram et al., 2011b, Ram, 2012). Further, they have been used to reconstruct the moisture index back to AD 1866 in central India (Ram et al., 2011b).
The aim of this study is to determine a better relationship between ring-width index chronologies and climate variables other than rainfall and temperature. A first attempt has been made to examine the relationship between total ring-width of conifer trees and soil moisture availability, which is indicated by the ring-width chronologies and the PDSI respectively, and to examine the wet and dry period over the region based on PDSI reconstruction.
Section snippets
Material and methods
The ring-width data of fir (Abies pindrow) and spruce (Picea smithiana) have been downloaded from the website (http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/paleo/treering.html/). Tree core samples have been collected from the Pahalgam area (34°02′N, 75°42′E, 2900 m asl) of Jammu and Kashmir during 1982 (Fig. 1). All core samples are from trees growing at altitude ranging from 2600 m to 2900 m above mean sea level (Borgaonkar et al., 1994, Borgaonkar et al., 1999). The sampling site is located in the hills around
Chronology statistics
The studied chronology of fir (A. pindrow) for the period 1677–1980 exhibits an expressed population signal of 0.81 and a signal to noise ratio of 4.3. The first principal component (PC) over the interval from 1677 to 1980 accounts for 45.3% of the total variance, demonstrating a common pattern among these tree-ring series.
Spruce (P. smithiana) chronology shows an expressed population signal of 0.86 and a signal to noise ratio of 6.1. The first principal component accounts for 38.4% of the
Discussion
Table 3, Table 4 show the correlation coefficients between ring-width index chronologies and climate variables (mean temperature, maximum temperature, minimum temperature, rainfall and PDSI,) from last October to October of the current growth year. The correlations were computed over the full period of 1901–1982 for precipitation, 1877–1982 for PDSI and 1901–1982 for mean, maximum and minimum temperature. The maximum numbers of significant positive correlations between PDSI and ring-width index
Conclusions
The results of the present study show that tree growth is very sensitive to moisture availability of the region. The tree-ring index correlated well with the PDSI as compared to rainfall and temperature, although this study is based on only a single site. This effort will contribute to understanding drought trends and their characteristics in the western Himalaya. For better understanding of tree growth climate relationship, more tree-ring data from different geographical regions might be
Acknowledgements
The author is thankful to Prof. B.N. Goswami, Director, IITM, Pune, and Dr. N. Singh, Head, C & H division, IITM, Pune for encouragement while carrying out this work. The author is also thankful to Mr. S.S. Mulye, C & H division, IITM, Pune for his help in preparation of map of study site. The author gratefully acknowledges the NOAA website for providing tree-ring data. The author thanks reviewers for useful comments to improve the manuscript.
References (48)
- et al.
Dendroclim2002: a C++ program for statistical calibration of climate signals in tree-ring chronologies
Computer and Geosciences
(2004) - et al.
Assessment of tree-ring analysis of high elevation Cedrus deodara D. Don from western Himalaya (India) in relation to climate and glaciers fluctuations
Dendrochronologia
(2009) - et al.
El Nino and related monsoon drought signals in 523-year-long ring width records of teak (Tectona grandis L.F.) trees from south India
Palaeogeography Palaeoclimatology Palaeoecology
(2010) - et al.
Tree-ring based summer temperature reconstruction for the source region of the Yangtze River on Tibetan Plateau
Global and Planetary Change
(2008) - et al.
Varying strength of the relationship between tree-rings and summer month moisture index (April–September) over central India: a case study
Quaternary International
(2010) On the recent strengthening of the relationship between Palmer drought severity index and teak (Tectona grandis L.F.) tree-ring width chronology from Maharashtra, India: a case study
Quaternary International
(2012)- et al.
Tree-ring based spring temperature patterns over the past four centuries in western Himalaya
Quaternary Research
(2002) The Palmer drought severity index: limitations and assumptions
Journal of Climate and Applied Meteorology
(1984)- et al.
The Himalayan conifers and their perspectives in dendroclimate studies
Himalayan Geology
(1997) - et al.
Late summer temperature reconstruction of the eastern Himalayan region based on tree-ring data of Abies densa
Arctic, Antarctic, and Alpine Research
(2003)
Would tree ring data of Betula utilis have potential for the analysis of Himalayan glacial fluctuations?
Current Science
Tree-ring studies in India past appraisal, present status and future prospects
International Association of Wood Analysis
Dendroclimate reconstruction of summer precipitation at Srinagar, Kashmir, India since the late-eighteenth century
Holocene
Tree-ring chronologies from western Himalaya and their dendroclimatic potential
IAWA
Dendroclimatological investigation of high altitude Himalayan conifers and tropical teak in India
The Korean Journal of Quaternary Research
Combined view of various tree ring parameters from different forest habitats in Tibet for the reconstruction of seasonal aspects of Asian monsoon variability
Palaeobotanist
Tree-ring analysis of larix griffithiana from the eastern Himalaya in the reconstruction of past temperature
Current Science
Suitability of Pinus kesiya in Shillong, Meghalaya for tree-ring analyses
Current Science
Spatial regression methods in dendroclimatology: a review and comparison of two techniques
International Journal of Climatology
Drought reconstructions for the continental United States
Journal of Climate
Long-term aridity changes in the western United States
Science
Cited by (35)
Temperature variability over Dokriani glacier region, Western Himalaya, India
2023, Quaternary InternationalHimalayan fir reveals moist phase during Little Ice Age in the Kashmir region of the western Himalayas
2023, Quaternary Science Reviews244-year long tree-ring based drought records from Uttarakhand, western Himalaya, India
2021, Quaternary InternationalA synthesis of drought prediction research over India
2021, Water SecurityReconstruction of potential evapotranspiration over western Himalaya in India based on tree ring-width records
2020, Quaternary InternationalCitation Excerpt :Singh and Yadav (2000) showed the strongest association between high elevation's tree growth and winter warmth. Also, some other studies reported that trees growth is strongly influenced by the availability of soil moisture of the region (Ram, 2012; Cook et al., 2010). However, these dendroclimatic analyses over the western Himalaya have been focused mainly based on rainfall and temperature.
Drought (scPDSI) reconstruction of trans-Himalayan region of central Himalaya using Pinus wallichiana tree-rings
2019, Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology