Climatic reconstructions using tree-ring data from tropical and temperate regions of India - A review

There are several reports which indicate that the climate over the Himalayan region is linked both with the monsoon variation on the Indian subcontinent and in the whole of South-East Asia as well as with the El-Nino /Southern Oscillation. To understand the behaviour of these climatic phenomena we need long-term high-resolution climatic records which are in general lacking in this part of the globe. Tree-ring studies have therefore been taken up in the tropical and Himalayan region in India to develop millennium-long climatic reconstructions. Several tropical trees in India produce annual growth rings due to a distinct seasonality in moisture supply. Some of these species like teak (Tectona grandis) and toon (Cedrela toona) have datable growth rings and are useful in understanding the long-term monsoon variability in India. In the Himalayan region several conifers, Abies pindrow, Cedrus deodara, Picea smithiana, Pinus gerardiana, and others, are suitable for dendroclimatic studies and several chronologies have been prepared from these taxa. Deodar (Cedrus deodara) has an excellent potential for long-term climatic reconstructions. The reconstruction of spring temperature for the last 800 years for the Himalayan region reveals that there were no drastic anomalies and thus no evidence for the so-called Little Ice Age.