Temperature variation at the low-latitude regions of East Asia recorded by tree rings during the past six centuries

The understanding of past millennium climate change is very important. Due to the lack of continuously annual resolution records, the temperature characteristics in the low-latitude regions of East Asia (LLREA) during past several centuries are still unknown. Using tree-ring width chronology from Taiwan, an island located in the western Pacific region and in southeastern China, February–October mean temperature from 1380 to 2007 AD was reconstructed. Spatial correlation analysis indicated that the reconstructed temperature could represent the sea-land temperature change in LLREA. During the past six centuries, both the warmest intervals and the largest variability of temperature appeared in the twentieth century. This is probably related to human activities. Temperature in LLREA provided good contrast with temperature changes in the Tibet Plateau and elsewhere in the Northern Hemisphere. The LLREA entered into the Little Ice Age around the year of 1450, approximately 100 years earlier than the Tibet Plateau. The 10-year cycle contained in the reconstructed temperature is close to the 11-year period of solar activity, which revealed there was a certain relationship between them. The temperature in LLREA significantly correlated with solar activity at the decadal to centennial scales. The strong/weak solar irradiance corresponded to the great/small temperature variability.