A Dual Stable Isotope Approach Unravels Common Climate Signals and Species-Specific Responses to Environmental Change Stored in Multi-Century Tree-Ring Series from the Tibetan Plateau

Grießinger, Jussi; Bräuning, Achim; Helle, Gerhard; Schleser, Gerhard Hans; Hochreuther, Philipp; Meier, Wolfgang Jens-Henrik; Zhu, Haifeng

doi:10.3390/geosciences9040151

Open AccessArticle

A Dual Stable Isotope Approach Unravels Common Climate Signals and Species-Specific Responses to Environmental Change Stored in Multi-Century Tree-Ring Series from the Tibetan Plateau

by

Jussi Grießinger

^1,*,

Achim Bräuning

¹,

Gerhard Helle

²,

Gerhard Hans Schleser

³,

Philipp Hochreuther

¹

,

Wolfgang Jens-Henrik Meier

¹

and

Haifeng Zhu

⁴

¹

Institute of Geography, Friedrich-Alexander-University Erlangen-Nürnberg, 91058 Erlangen, Germany

²

GFZ German Research Centre for Geoscience, Section 5.2 Climate Dynamics and Landscape Evolution, 14473 Potsdam, Germany

³

FZJ Research Centre Jülich, Institute of Bio- and Geosciences IBG-3, 52428 Jülich, Germany

⁴

Institute of Tibetan Plateau Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100864, China

^*

Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.

Geosciences 2019, 9(4), 151; https://doi.org/10.3390/geosciences9040151

Submission received: 13 February 2019 / Revised: 16 March 2019 / Accepted: 23 March 2019 / Published: 29 March 2019

(This article belongs to the Section Biogeosciences)

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Abstract

Tree-rings are recorders of environmental signals and are therefore often used to reconstruct past environmental conditions. In this paper, we present four annually resolved, multi-centennial tree-ring isotope series from the southeastern Tibetan plateau. The investigation site, where juniper and spruce trees jointly occur, is one of the highest known tree-stands in the world. Tree ring cellulose oxygen (δ¹⁸O) and carbon (δ¹³C) isotopes were analyzed for a common period of 1685–2007 AD to investigate climate–isotope relationships. Therefore, various climate parameters from a local meteorological station and from the CRU 4.02 dataset were used. Tree-ring δ¹⁸O of both species revealed highly significant sensitivities with a high degree of coherence to hydroclimate variables during the growing season. The obtained δ¹⁸O–climate relationships can even be retained using a species mean. In contrast, the individual δ¹³C series indicated a weaker and non-uniform response to the tested variables. Underlying species-specific responses and adaptations to the long-term trend in atmospheric CO₂ bias even after a trend correction identified dominant environmental factors triggering the tree-ring δ¹³C at our site. However, analysis of individual intrinsic water-use efficiency in juniper and spruce trees indicated a species-specific adaptation strategy to climate change.

Keywords: tree-ring δ¹⁸O; tree-ring δ¹³C; Juniperus tibetica; Picea balfouriana; Tibetan plateau; intrinsic water-use efficiency (iWUE); multi-centennial isotope time-series

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MDPI and ACS Style

Grießinger, J.; Bräuning, A.; Helle, G.; Schleser, G.H.; Hochreuther, P.; Meier, W.J.-H.; Zhu, H. A Dual Stable Isotope Approach Unravels Common Climate Signals and Species-Specific Responses to Environmental Change Stored in Multi-Century Tree-Ring Series from the Tibetan Plateau. Geosciences 2019, 9, 151. https://doi.org/10.3390/geosciences9040151

AMA Style

Grießinger J, Bräuning A, Helle G, Schleser GH, Hochreuther P, Meier WJ-H, Zhu H. A Dual Stable Isotope Approach Unravels Common Climate Signals and Species-Specific Responses to Environmental Change Stored in Multi-Century Tree-Ring Series from the Tibetan Plateau. Geosciences. 2019; 9(4):151. https://doi.org/10.3390/geosciences9040151

Chicago/Turabian Style

Grießinger, Jussi, Achim Bräuning, Gerhard Helle, Gerhard Hans Schleser, Philipp Hochreuther, Wolfgang Jens-Henrik Meier, and Haifeng Zhu. 2019. "A Dual Stable Isotope Approach Unravels Common Climate Signals and Species-Specific Responses to Environmental Change Stored in Multi-Century Tree-Ring Series from the Tibetan Plateau" Geosciences 9, no. 4: 151. https://doi.org/10.3390/geosciences9040151

APA Style

Grießinger, J., Bräuning, A., Helle, G., Schleser, G. H., Hochreuther, P., Meier, W. J.-H., & Zhu, H. (2019). A Dual Stable Isotope Approach Unravels Common Climate Signals and Species-Specific Responses to Environmental Change Stored in Multi-Century Tree-Ring Series from the Tibetan Plateau. Geosciences, 9(4), 151. https://doi.org/10.3390/geosciences9040151

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A Dual Stable Isotope Approach Unravels Common Climate Signals and Species-Specific Responses to Environmental Change Stored in Multi-Century Tree-Ring Series from the Tibetan Plateau

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