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Abstract Fluctuations in glacier mass and volume are indicative of changes in the climate system. They also strongly affect regional climate and hydrology. In this paper, we explore possible relationships between the radial growth of Schrenk spruce (Picea schren kiana Fisch. et Mey) and the mass balance of the Tsentralniy Tuyuksuyskiy (TS. Tuyuksuyskiy) Glacier, which is located on the northern slopes of the Tianshan Mountains in arid central Asia. We attempt to reconstruct the historical mass balance variability of the TS. Tuyuksuyskiy glacier using tree-ring widths and stable carbon isotope chronologies. The reconstruction is able to explain 62.1% of the variance in the annual glacier mass balance record over the 1965–2014 calibration period. We also analyzed centennial mass balance variability and its linkages to climate change. The TS.Tuyuksuyskiy glacier has a negative annual mass balance in most years and, since 1968, has undergone the most rapid and longest melting process in the past 166 years. The mass balance change of the glacier is controlled by the combination of temperature and precipitation conditions. This study could be useful for more detailed glaciological, hydrological, and climatological assessments in this portion of the Tianshan Mountains. Highlights • The reconstruction of glacial changes using tree ring widths and stable carbon isotopes is reliable in arid central Asia. • The TS.Tuyuksuyskiy glacier has had a negative annual mass balance for most of the past 166 years. • The mass balance change of the glacier is controlled by the combination of temperature and precipitation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Central Asia is the world's largest non-zonal arid area, with rare and uneven precipitation. As a sensitive area of global change and with a vulnerable ecological environment, Central Asia is largely affected by global change. Various long-lived conifer species widely distributed in the mountains of Central Asia have become an important proxy for studying historical climatic, hydrological, and vegetation changes in this region. This paper reviews research progress on tree rings in Central Asia; specifically, the current state of research is addressed, highlights and bottleneck problems associated with the research are analyzed and discussed, and suggestions and prospects for further study of dendrochronology in this area are proposed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Three tree-ring width chronologies were developed from 75 Picea schrenkiana trees ranging from low- to high-elevation in the mountains surrounding the Issyk-Kul Lake, Northeast Kyrgyzstan. The reliable chronologies extend back to the mid-18th and late-19th centuries. Spatial correlation analysis indicates that the chronologies for the relatively high-elevation trees contain large-scale climatic signals, while the chronology at relatively low elevation may reflect the local climate variability. The results of the response of tree growth to climate show that these chronologies contain an annual precipitation signal. Furthermore, the influence of temperature indicates mainly moisture stress that is enhanced with rising elevation. The tree-ring records also captured a wetting trend in eastern Central Asia over the past decades. These new tree-ring width chronologies provide reliable proxies of precipitation variability in Central Asia and contribute to the International Tree-Ring Data Bank. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Chemical surveys of snow were carried out in the upper reaches of the Kunnes River, a tributary of the Yili River in East Tienshan Mountains, China. Some surprisingly high values of sodium and potassium (K[sup +] + Na[sup +] ) ranging from 4.44 to 8.99 mg/1 compared with other data from neighboring areas are detected. Moreover, some relative high values of SO[sup 2-, sub 4] with mean concentration 15.8mg/1 for new snow and 14.40mg/l for deposited snow, ranging from 10.43 to 23.71 mg/1 are also found. Therefore, it is inferred that the sodium and potassium (K[sup +] + Na[sup +]) are in the forms of sulfate and that the sources of the sulfate are deserts and some dried lakes in Central Asia. It is also found that there is obviously spatial variation of ions such as K[sup +] + Na[sup +], Ca[sup 2+] +, SO[sup 2-, sub 4] and HCO[sup -, sub 3]. The concentrations of K [sup +] + Na[sup +] and SO[sup 2, sub 4], and that of Ca[sup 2+] and HCO[sup -, sub 3] have similar spatial pattern. The temporal pattern of ion concentration of new snow is considered to be mainly controlled by the depth and area of snow cover in the study area and in the areas to the west. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

July–June precipitation has been reconstructed to 1756 AD for the western Tien Shan Mountains, Central Asia, using the Picea schrenkiana tree-ring width. The reconstruction explains 31% of the variation in the observed precipitation from 1933 to 2009. Some extremely dry signals in the historical documents are captured precisely in this new reconstruction. Wet periods occurred during the periods of 1811–1828, 1843–1880, 1893–1915, 1929–1934, and 1983–2002, while the periods 1766–1810, 1829–1842, 1881–1892, 1916–1928, and 1935–1982 were relatively dry. Power spectral and wavelet analyses demonstrated the existence of significant 32-, 17-, and 2.6–7.4-year cycles of variability. An assessment of spatial correlation analysis and the significant correlation coefficients between the reconstructed precipitation series and three precipitation reconstructions indicate that our reconstruction might contain multiple large-scale climatic signals in the low-frequency domain. A wetting trend in the eastern Central Asia since the 1970s decades was also captured by this reconstruction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]