Long-time series of high-resolution temperature record from Chinese Loess Plateau is rare. An April-September mean temperature reconstruction (1826-2004) has been developed for the north-central Shaanxi Province, China, based on tree-ring width analysis. The reconstruction captures 39.3% (p<0.001) of the variance in the instrumental data over the calibration period from 1951 to 2002. The reconstruction shows a high temperature period of 1928-1933, which coincides with the timing of the extreme drought event in 1920s in the entire northern China. The two low temperature periods in reconstruction are 1883-1888 and 1938-1942. With the global warming, the April-September mean temperature in study area has also increased since the 1970s, but has not exceeded the temperature in 1928-1933. Besides the statistical analysis, the reconstruction is also verified by the local dryness/wetness index and other dendroclimatological results.
As a consequence of recent global warming and its social impact, regional climate change is attracting an increasing amount of attention from scientists. A May-July temperature proxy extending back to 1836 was developed from tree-ring width of Chinese pine (Pinus tabulaeformis Carr.) found in the middle Lüliang Mountains, northern China. Correlations with climatic data from six nearby meteorological stations range from -0.58 to -0.65, indicating a strong response of tree-ring index to May-July mean temperatures, which were subsequently reconstructed. The reconstruction captures 45% (F=38.474, P<0.001) of the regional variance in the instrumental data over the calibration period 1955-2003. Reconstructed warm and cold periods were verified by additional temperature reconstructions based on tree-ring data from northern China. In addition, the reconstruction was significantly corre-lated with May-July mean temperatures from 13 other meteorological stations in northern China, suggesting that our reconstruction is also representative of north-central China. The warming trend during the second half of the 20th century is seen in the reconstruction, but only the 1994-2002 mean temperature seems unprecedented over the whole reconstructed period.
