Elsevier

Quaternary International

Volume 254, 16 March 2012, Pages 152-158
Quaternary International

Tree growth–climate relationships of conifer trees and reconstruction of summer season Palmer Drought Severity Index (PDSI) at Pahalgam in Srinagar, India

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.quaint.2011.09.026Get rights and content

Abstract

Tree-ring chronologies of fir (Abies pindrow) and spruce (Picea smithiana) show highly significant positive correlation with Palmer Drought Severity Index (PDSI) as compared to rainfall over the region. This study indicates that soil moisture availability during summer season (April–September) plays a vital role in developing the annual ring-width pattern. Higher mean, maximum, and minimum temperatures during the summer season are not found to be conducive for the growth of the trees. The summer seasons’ PDSI of the region has been reconstructed from AD 1820–1981.

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.

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