Development of a High-Asia Tree-Ring Network for Reconstructing Past Climates

This awards supports the development of a dense network of precisely dated annual tree-ring chronologies for use in reconstructing climate over the past 300-500 years in the High Asia region (i.e., Karakoram, Himalayas, and Tibetan Plateau).

The goal of the research is to better understand climate variability, forcing, and impacts at inter-decadal to multi-centennial time scales in an area of the world where relatively little information of this kind is available. The High Asia region is strategically located along the orographic boundary between the monsoon-dominated southern Asia, the dry Tibetan Plateau, and the Asian interior to the north. To accomplish the development of this network, the researcher will utilize established collaborations with tree-ring scientists working in India, China, and Bhutan, to help expand existing tree-ring data sets and develop new tree-ring chronologies.

The research has the potential to provide an improved understanding of climate variability in one of the most densely populated regions on Earth. The research may lead to new insights modeling and forecasting future climatic change over High Asia and other regions of Asia, especially those in monsoon-dominated South Asia. This project will also train collaborating foreign scientists from High Asia countries in the methods of tree-ring analysis. In this way, the researcher is enabling capacity building and technology transfer with scientists from those countries that are offering access to their natural forest resources and tree-ring data.