Spatiotemporal high resolution reconstruction of climatic variation over the eastern Tibetan Plateau during the last 2000 years

• Applicant: Professor Dr. Achim Bräuning
• Subject Area: Physical Geography ; Palaeontology
• Term: from 2006 to 2008
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 29447019

We intend to apply a multiproxy analysis approach to newly collected tree-ring material from a study area in north-eastern Tibet: beside ring width, maximum latewood density, wood anatomy and the content of stable 13C and 18O isotopes in the wood shall be measured. These parameters are sensitive to different seasonal climate elements and enable a comprehensive reconstruction of past climate variability. Due to the scarcity of climatic data from the investigation area, a regional climate modelling approach will be implemented. This will provide spatially high resolution monthly estimated topoclimatic variables (radiation, temperature, evapotranspiration, precipitation) for the calibration of climate-tree growth transfer functions. The modelling work will consist of the design and integrated implementation of GCM (statistical) downscaling and terrain parameterization methods to bridge the spatial scale gap between the coarse GCM resolution and the required high-resolution estimates of climate variables relevant for dendroclimatological analyses. By reconstructing air pressure fields and resulting circulation patterns we want to disentangle the dynamic behaviour of the South Asian and the East Asian Summer Monsoons during important past climate episodes. This helps to verify the predictive power of regional climate models to gain better forecast skills for future regional development of monsoon intensity.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants
• Participating Person: Professor Dr. Jürgen Böhner