20th century seasonal moisture balance in Southeast Asian montane forests from tree cellulose δ¹⁸O

Zhu, Mengfan; Stott, Lowell; Buckley, Brendan; Yoshimura, Kei

20th century seasonal moisture balance in Southeast Asian montane forests from tree cellulose δ¹⁸O

2012

Zhu, Mengfan | Stott, Lowell | Buckley, Brendan | Yoshimura, Kei

The seasonally varying moisture balance in a montane forest of Southeast Asia is reconstructed for the 20th century from the oxygen isotopic composition (δ¹⁸O) of subannual tree cellulose samples of Pinus kesiya growing at 1,500 m elevation on Doi Chiang Dao in northern Thailand. The cellulose δ¹⁸O values exhibit a distinctive annual cycle with amplitude of up to 12 ‰, which we interpret to represent primarily the seasonal cycle of precipitation δ¹⁸O. The annual mean δ¹⁸O values correlate significantly with the amount of summer monsoon precipitation, and suggest a temporal weakening relationship between the South Asian monsoon and El Niño-Southern Oscillation over the late 20th century. The cellulose δ¹⁸O annual maxima values, which reflect the dry season moisture status, have declined progressively over the 20th century by about 3.5 ‰. We interpret this to indicate a change in the contribution of the isotopically distinct fog water to the dry season soil moisture in response to rising temperature as well as deforestation.

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