NOAA/WDS Paleoclimatology - Kim - Wolchul Mountain - PIDE - ITRDB KORE003

Tree-ring width (TRW) chronologies have successfully been used as climate proxies to infer climate variabilities over the past hundreds to thousands of years worldwide beyond observational records. However, these data are scarce over parts of subtropical East Asia, and especially over the Korean Peninsula. In this pilot study, Korean red pine (Pinus densiflora Siebold and Zucc.) TRW chronologies from Mt. Mudeung and Mt. Wolchul, South Korea, were developed, and their local- to large-cale climatic responses were investigated. Mt. Mudeung TRW had a positive association with local temperature in the preceding December and April. Mt. Wolchul TRW had a positive association with local temperature in the preceding December and most of the early summer to autumn months, and with local precipitation in February and October. On a large scale, both TRWs retained meaningful temperature and monsoon precipitation signals over East Asia and sea surface temperature signals over the Western North Pacific. The results suggest that the subtropical trees from South Korea can be used to infer past long-term climate variability at both local and large scales over East Asia and the Western North Pacific, such as the East Asian summer monsoon, the Kuroshio Current, the Western North Pacific Subtropical High, and El Nino-Southern Oscillation.

树轮宽度（Tree-ring width, TRW）年表已被成功用作气候代用指标（climate proxy），用以反演全球范围内观测记录覆盖范围之外的数百年至数千年尺度的气候变异性。然而，亚热带东亚部分区域的此类数据较为匮乏，朝鲜半岛尤为突出。本先导研究中，研究人员构建了取自韩国无等山（Mt. Mudeung）与月出山（Mt. Wolchul）的赤松（Pinus densiflora Siebold and Zucc.）树轮宽度年表，并分析了其从局地到大尺度的气候响应特征。无等山的树轮宽度年表与前一年12月及当年4月的局地气温呈显著正相关；月出山的树轮宽度年表则与前一年12月、初夏至秋季的多数月份的局地气温呈正相关，同时与当年2月及10月的局地降水量呈显著正相关。在大尺度层面，两处的树轮宽度年表均保留了东亚区域有意义的气温与季风降水信号，以及西北太平洋的海表温度信号。研究结果表明，韩国本土的亚热带树种树轮年表，可用于反演东亚及西北太平洋范围内局地与大尺度的过去长期气候变异性，例如东亚夏季风、黑潮（Kuroshio Current）、西北太平洋副热带高压（Western North Pacific Subtropical High）以及厄尔尼诺-南方涛动（El Nino-Southern Oscillation）。