Establishment of tree-ring chronology from the eastern region of Aibi lake basin in Xinjiang province and its climate significance

Two sets of tree-ring samples of Populus euphratica oliv were collected from the eastern region of Aibi lake basin in Xinjiang province. Tree-ring width chronologies of Guertu sampling sites were established, and chronologies were 181-year long. Correlation analysis between tree-ring width chronologies and temperature and precipitation of Jinghe and Caijiahu meteorological station indicate that tree-ring width chronologies and precipitation were positive correlation in winter months. Comparison of two meteorological stations, the correlation coefficient of Jinghe station was higher than Caijiahu station and the largest was 0.408. Discussion of qualitative analysis shows that tree-ring width chronologies of Guertu and the level changes of Aibi Lake have a good consistency at the same time. In this paper, findings are consistent with conclusions of other scholars in this area. The results show that tree ring width variation is sensitive to groundwater level.