阿拉善荒漠灌木年轮学研究

Research on regional climate change and ecosystem response is an important part of global climate change research, especially in arid desert regions. Alxa Plateau is one of the important sandstorm source region and eco-fragile region in China, which is suffered by both of the Westerlies and the Asian Summer Monsoon climate systems. Use of tree-ring series as a high resolution proxy to reconstruct environmental processes for climate and ecology is an important tool throughout the world. In recent years, interest has increased in dendrochronological studies of shrubs and dwarf shrubs in various parts of the world. Shrub dendrochronology has the potential to provide high resolution data about the historical environment in the extreme climate regions, where are often devoid of trees. This project aims to 1) bulding the shrub tree-ring research system,2)expound the climatic responding mechanism of desert shrub's radius growth, and 3) undstanding the historical climate change and environmental evolution in Alxa desert region, by through the study of the tree ring distinguish, radial growth characters and its related response to the climate change, and reconstruction for the regional climate changes and environmental evolution with the predominant shrubs, such as Reaumuria soongorica, Zygophyllum xanthoxylon, Ammopiptanthus mongolicus, caragana korshinskii, et al. The result of this project will be enrich the shrub species and the related basic theory of shrub dendrochronology, helpful for the government decision-making of the vegetation rehabilitation and ecosystem management for the desertification in arid desert regions.

荒漠区气候变化敏感响应与突出反馈是全球气候变化研究的重要组成部分。阿拉善荒漠是我国重要的沙尘源区和生态脆弱区，同时受西风带和亚洲季风两种气候系统影响。利用树木年轮来反映干旱区气候、生态过程已成为目前世界上重建高分辨率环境演变历史的重要方法之一；灌木年轮研究是近年来兴起的新领域，在缺乏乔木的极端气候区，有其潜在研究前景和应用价值。本项目拟以阿拉善荒漠区优势灌木红砂、霸王、沙冬青、柠条等为研究对象，开展灌木年轮辨识、径向生长规律及其气候变化响应和气候环境重建方面的研究，以期构建灌木年轮研究方法技术体系，阐明荒漠灌木生长的气候变化响应机制，认识阿拉善荒漠地区历史气候环境演变过程。该研究对充实我国乃至国际树木年轮学中灌木研究理论基础和拓展灌木树种等方面都具有重要科学价值，同时也为荒漠化区植被恢复和生态管理提供科学决策依据。

项目执行期间，根据项目研究目标和重点内容及年度计划，主要开展了以下几个方面的工作。项目以阿拉善荒漠区优势灌木为研究对象，开展了灌木年轮辨识、径向生长规律及其气候变化响应和气候环境重建方面的研究；以霸王为例，构建了基径断面积指标年表的偏心灌木年轮研究方法技术体系；阐明了优势荒漠灌木径向生长的气候变化响应机制及阿拉善荒漠地区历史气候环境演变过程。该研究对充实我国乃至国际树木年轮学中灌木研究理论基础和拓展灌木树种等方面都具有重要科学价值，同时也为荒漠化区植被恢复和生态管理提供科学决策依据。.项目执行期间，资助发表相关研究论文10篇，在审论文1篇；国际国内会议口头报告6次。项目培养硕士研究生2人，博士1人，另有树木年轮学方向在读研究生2人。项目完成任务目标。