Reconstruction of spring temperature on the southern edge of the Gobi Desert, Asia, reveals recent climatic warming

We have reconstructed the spring (March-June) temperature from 1701 to 2008 for the Changling Mountains, the southern edge of the Gobi Desert, using mean earlywood density data of Pinus tabulaeformis. The reconstruction explains 41.7% of the actual temperature variance during the common period 1959-2008. The temperature reconstruction is representative of temperature conditions over a large area of Central and East Asia, especially in the Gobi Desert. Significant spectral peaks are identified at 2.0-2.8 and 26.9 years. Our temperature reconstruction successfully captured most recent warming and agreed in general with other temperature reconstructions from nearby regions, eastern China and Northern Hemisphere on a decadal timescale. Our reconstructed temperature is significantly correlated with sea surface temperature in the western tropical and northern Pacific Ocean. Preliminary analysis of links between large-scale climatic variation and the temperature reconstruction shows that there is a relationship between extremes in spring temperature and the Asian summer monsoon circulations.