Science - Tree-Ring Data Show Mongolia Facing Drought Conditions Not Seen For Centuries
A review of weather patterns in inner East Asia over the past 260 years suggests the region is currently caught in a dangerous cycle of heatwaves and droughts that could forever reshape the area, and possibly turn the Mongolian Plateau into an arid wasteland.
New research published today in Science is painting an alarming picture of the current climate situation in inner East Asia. Contemporaneous heatwaves and droughts in the region are happening more often now than they did 20 years ago, but as the new study points out, the current climate situation in the region has no precedent over the past 260 years. The authors of the new paper reached this conclusion after analyzing tree-rings, which document droughts and heatwaves dating back to the mid-18th century.
This is bad because the region will be even more susceptible to hot and dry weather extremes. The Mongolian Plateau is currently a semi-arid region, but it may not stay that way. The kind of climate that’s being predicted, in which the region will suffer though even more heatwaves and droughts, could make the region as dry and barren as parts of the U.S. southwest, according to the study.
By analyzing tree-rings sourced from the Mongolian Plateau, the researchers were able to tell when heatwaves and droughts happened in the past, and when the soil was moist. Results showed that current temperatures in inner East Asia are unprecedented across the 260-year record. “The conifer trees respond strongly to anomalously high temperatures,” Linderholm said. “By examining their growth rings, we can see their response to the recent heatwaves, and we can see that they do not appear to have experienced anything like this in their very long lives,” Hans Linderholm, a study co-author and climatologist from the University of Gothenburg, explained in a statement prepared by Utah State University.
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https://earther.gizmodo.com/feedback-loop-in-central-east-asia-threatens-disturbi-1845761575?fbclid=IwAR1NGZ4NqRzg6yDf2jbPAJicl4oz2yzdEsyDN4xBwzaFD0tirpNma5wFT5E