Scientists will use tree rings to determine how the climate in Central Asia has changed over 200 years

An expedition of an international group of dendrochronologists took place in the Taganay National Park in the Chelyabinsk region, who examined the growth rings of wood. The Russian Ministry of Natural Resources reported this on its website.

Scientists from the Institute of Plant and Animal Ecology of the Ural Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences (Ekaterinburg), Yunnan University (China) and Khujand State University (Tajikistan), together with employees of the scientific department of the national park, collected samples from old trees. This will allow us to analyze the growth patterns of tree rings and their relationship with climate (temperature and precipitation) both in the past and now.

“The vegetation of mountainous areas demonstrates a fairly high sensitivity to climate change, and the radial growth of old-growth trees makes it possible to reconstruct such climate factors as air temperature, precipitation, droughts over a tree life span of 150-200 years or more. Based on these data, it is possible to assess the changes occurring during periods when there were no instrumental meteorological observations yet,” said Elvina Novoselova, director of the Taganay National Park, as quoted by the ministry.

As noted in the report, changes in annual growth or in relationships with climate variables will be compared with data for China, the Pamirs, Tien Shan and the Caucasus.

“The identified similarities and differences in the dynamics of growth and relationships with temperature and precipitation will make it possible to find global signs of climate change characteristic of the mountain systems of Central Asia, as well as calculate regional ones, characteristic only of the surroundings of the Taganay National Park,” the Ministry of Natural Resources reported.

The data obtained by scientists will become part of the monitoring of weather and climate conditions in the Southern Urals.