A 368-year maximum temperature reconstruction based on tree-ring data
in the northwestern Sichuan Plateau (NWSP), China

Zhu, Liangjun; Zhang, Yuandong; Li, Zongshan; Guo, Binde; Wang, Xiaochun

doi:https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-12-1485-2016

Articles | Volume 12, issue 7

https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-12-1485-2016

© Author(s) 2016. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.

https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-12-1485-2016

© Author(s) 2016. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.

Articles | Volume 12, issue 7

Research article

|

13 Jul 2016

Research article |

| 13 Jul 2016

A 368-year maximum temperature reconstruction based on tree-ring data in the northwestern Sichuan Plateau (NWSP), China

Liangjun Zhu, Yuandong Zhang, Zongshan Li, Binde Guo, and Xiaochun Wang

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Final revised paper (published on 13 Jul 2016)
Supplement to the final revised paper
Preprint (discussion started on 03 Feb 2016)

Interactive discussion

Status: closed

AC: Author comment | RC: Referee comment | SC: Short comment | EC: Editor comment

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- Supplement

RC1: 'Comment：A 368-year maximum temperature reconstruction based on tree ring data in Northwestern Sichuan Plateau (NWSP), China', Anonymous Referee #1, 29 Feb 2016
RC2: 'Comments on cp-2016-6', Anonymous Referee #2, 07 Mar 2016
AC1: 'Response to Anonymous Referee #1', Xiaochun Wang, 07 Apr 2016
AC2: 'Response to Anonymous Referee #2', Xiaochun Wang, 07 Apr 2016

Peer-review completion

AR: Author's response | RR: Referee report | ED: Editor decision

ED: Reconsider after major revisions (13 Apr 2016) by Eduardo Zorita

AR by Xiaochun Wang on behalf of the Authors (15 Apr 2016) Author's response Manuscript

ED: Referee Nomination & Report Request started (18 Apr 2016) by Eduardo Zorita

RR by Anonymous Referee #2 (13 Jun 2016)

Suggestions for revision or reasons for rejection

The revised version of the manuscript represents a significant improvement respect to the initial version. The only general criticism that I have is the language. Although the spelling and grammar have generally improved, I found several issues (find some examples in minor comments). I could not list all the issues that I found and therefore, I strongly encourage the authors to do a careful language check.
I also noticed several verbs in present tense when the results and discussion sections are written in past. This should also be corrected.
Minor corrections:
Page 5, line 18-19: These sentences need to be rephrase
Page 8, line 23-24: Please rephrase
Page 9, line 9: Change “reconstruction temperatures” to “temperature reconstruction” or “reconstructed temperatures”
Page 9, line 11: Change “and also show consistency…” to “and also showed consistency…”
Page 9, lines 13-15: Please rephrase.
Page 10, lines 3-7: This paragraph needs a language revision. I would also suggest to modify the structure and insert the description of the LIA earlier in the results section, before the description of the cold and warm periods (page 9, line 23). It makes more sense to me to start describing centennial changes and then describe the decadal and multidecadal ones.
Page 12, line 5: “although, there have…” please correct
Page 12, line 7: “low frequency of low temperature events…” please rephrase
Page 11, lines 28-30: I have the impression that the font size is smaller in these lines
Page 11, line 30: Change “…events lead a temperature drop in the year and subsequent…” to “…events lead to a temperature drop in the year of the event and subsequent…”
Page 12, lines 8-9: do the authors have any explanation for the described periodicities? If no explanation is given, I do not see the point of leaving this sentence in the conclusions section.
Page 12, lines 6-12: I find the paragraph a bit confusing, describing temperatures changes from the 17th to 20th century, then focusing on the temperature increase during the 20th century and then back to the LIA. I would suggest to follow a chronological order.
Figure1: The scale of precipitation should be double the scale of temperature but both scales should have the same 0.
Figure 2: I would suggest to place the EPS thresholds in 0.85.
Figure 3: Now that each graph is labelled with the corresponding climate variable, I would recommend either to remove the “A, B, C”, write them in low-case letters “a), b), c)“ or write the full name of the climate variable. In the current form, the labels “A.P”, “B.T”, etc are confusing.
Figure 4: Please indicate the season (July-August) in the temperature axis of panel A and D.
Figure 8: I suggest to plot the moving correlations using lines instead of dots (or to connect the dots with a line).

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ED: Publish as is (16 Jun 2016) by Eduardo Zorita

AR by Xiaochun Wang on behalf of the Authors (24 Jun 2016)

Short summary

We present a 368-year late summer maximum temperature reconstruction based on spruce tree rings. It touches on the critical topic of climate reconstruction in the eastern edge of Tibetan Plateau and represents an extension and enhancement of climate records for this area. The Little Ice Age was well represented and 20th century warming was not obvious in this reconstruction. This temperature variation may be affected by global land–sea atmospheric circulation as well as solar and volcanic forcing.