PJB-2018-542
CLIMATE GROWTH RESPONSE OF PINUS SIBIRICA (SIBERIAN PINE) IN THE ALTAI MOUNTAINS, NORTHWESTERN CHINA
SHER SHAH
Abstract
The Altai Mountains in the Northwest China has a great potential for dendroclimatological studies. The dendrochronology and the climatological response analysis potentials and gaps of northwest China in the Altai Mountains ranges is therefore, unexplored. In this study, we develop for the first time chronology statistics and climate response growth analysis of Pinus sibirica using (dplR) and (Treeclim) packages of the R program, with overall goal of documenting baseline information for future research. The chronology covered a span of up to 202 years in the study site. The results highlighted that the chronology showing highly significant negative correlation to the previous year June and highly positive significant correlation to the late winter March, Maximum, Minimum and average temperature respectively. The results further revealed negative responses for the previous year March in term of Palmer Drought Severity Index (PDSI) value (-0.027) but positive PDSI values (0.035, 0.014, 0.027) in April, May and June. These results indicated that tree ring widths are not responding positively to the previous year growing season at the current chronologies of 203 years. These findings suggest more extensive research on the climate-growth reconstruction and Response Function Analysis of the trees for longer chronologies up to their natural age of 800 years.
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