Collaborative Research: P2C2-- Reconstructing changes in Asian monsoon circulation during the last millennium from stable isotopes in tropical tree rings

DESCRIPTION: This project seeks to develop millennium-length estimates of the strength of Asian monsoon atmospheric circulation and to infer variability in past monsoon circulation from replicated, annually-resolved stable oxygen isotope (ä18-O) time series from the long-lived southeast Asian conifer Fokienia hodginsii in Vietnam and Laos. The research leverages a previously supported pilot study that demonstrated that tree-ring ä18-O from this species in this region responds to broad-scale patterns of Asian monsoon circulation that are consistent with climate dynamics, known controls on the stable isotopes of precipitation, and the physical and chemical mechanisms comprising the study of isotope dendroclimatology.

The potential broader impacts include supporting undergraduates in the planned research and providing a potentially important new archive of data from a climatologically sensitive region.