Climate Response Analysis of Pinus massoniana Tree-Ring Chronology in Shuangpai County,China

The formation of tree-rings is closely related to climate variation. This paper establishes the tree-ring chronology of Pinus massoniana for a period of 36 years and examines the relationship between the tree-ring chronology and climatic conditions based on tree-ring width samples from three sites on the northeast slopes of Yangming Mountain. This data is used to study the relationship between the tree-ring width of a young tree and climatic conditions in a moist hilly region of southern China and to understand the general pattern of climate variation and its effects on tree growth in the past in this region. The results indicate that changes in tree-ring widths in these sites are closely related to local climatic conditions. There is a significant positive correlation between the radial growth of Pinus massoniana and the mean temperature of the current year from January to May (coefficient of correlation, R, is 0.596, P<0.01) and the mean temperature of the previous year from June to July (R is 0.639, P<0.01). The radial growth of Pinus massoniana is negatively correlated with the total precipitation of the previous year from January to March and November to December (R is -0.46, P<0.05) and negatively correlated with the total precipitation of the previous year from June to July (R is -0.582, P<0.05). The effect of precipitation on the radial growth of Pinus massoniana is known as the “hysteresis effect”.