Early summer temperature reconstruction in the eastern Tibetan plateau since ad 1440 using tree-ring width of Sabina tibetica

Long climate records are scarce on the Tibetan Plateau for understanding the climate variability on long-term context. Here we presented an early summer (May–June) temperature reconstruction since ad 1440 for Qamdo area using tree rings of Sabina tibetica. The reconstruction accounted for 64% of the variance in the instrumental record. It showed warm periods during 1501–1514, 1528–1538, 1598–1609, 1624–1636, 1650–1668, 1695–1705, 1752–1762, 1794–1804, 1878–1890, 1909–1921, 1938–1949, and 1979–1991. Cool early summer occurred during 1440–1454, 1482–1500, 1515–1527, 1576–1597, 1610–1621, 1669–1679, 1706–1716, 1782–1793, 1863–1873, 1894–1908, and 1922–1937. Comparison with other proxy or meteorological records suggested that there is obvious spatial variability in the May–June temperature variations along the eastern margin of the Tibetan Plateau.