Shrubs are widespread at higher altitudes and latitudes. Dendrochronology of shrub growth has been intensively studied in the circumpolar Arctic, Mediterranean and Patagonia. However, relatively little is known about shrub growth responses to climate change on the Tibetan Plateau. Herein, we...

Trees growing in the tectonically active and climatically sensitive regions, such as the Tibetan Plateau, frequently suffer damage from strong earthquakes and extreme hydro-climatic events. Spruce trees in the Jiuzhaigou National Park exhibited abrupt periods of growth suppression with durations of ...

Recent forest declines have been reported at many sites across the world and attributed largely to global-warming induced droughts. Occurrence of forest declines before the global warming is not well understood, especially with regard to its long-term characteristics. Here, we use tree-ring data to ...

In harsh and treeless environments, shrubs constitute the dominant growth form of woody plants, thus offering the opportunity to extend dendrochronological networks beyond the uppermost and northernmost distribution limits of trees. However, shrub-based dendrochronology has so far resulted in only...

Precipitation is one of the most important climate factors controlling tree growth, yet it is not fully understood how changes in precipitation affect the relationship between growth and temperature. On the northeastern edge of the Tibetan Plateau, nine tree-ring chronologies of Picea crassifolia...

Hydroclimatic conditions and related water resources change in the Tibetan Plateau is one of the main concerns for future sustainable development in China. This study presents a 254-year precipitation reconstruction from August of the previous year to June of the current year for the northeastern...

Latitudinal and altitudinal gradients can be utilized to forecast the impact of climate change on forests. To improve the understanding of how these gradients impact forest dynamics, we tested two hypotheses: (1) the change of the tree growth-climate relationship is similar along both latitudinal...

Response of climate warming on tree-ring formation has attracted much attention during recent years. However, most studies are based on statistical analysis, lacking understanding of tree-physiological processes, especially in the mountainous regions of the Tibetan Plateau (TP). Herein, we firstly...

Stress from water scarcity as a result of rising temperatures associated with climate change has a profound impact on forest ecosystems around the world. However, few studies have assessed the influence of climate change on the dynamics of growth of alpine coniferous forests of different tree...

The Lenglongling Mountains (LLM) located in northeastern part of the Tibet Plateau, belong to a marginal area of the East Asian summer monsoon (EASM) and are sensitive to monsoon dynamics. Two tree-ring width chronologies developed from six sites of Picea crassifolia in the LLM were employed to...