Weakening of annual temperature cycle over the Tibetan Plateau since the 1870s

The annual cycle of extra-tropical surface air temperature is an important component of the Earth’s climate system. Over the past decades, a reduced amplitude of this mode has been observed in some regions. Although attributed to anthropogenic forcing, it remains unclear when dampening of the annual cycle started. Here we use a residual series of tree-ring width and maximum latewood density from the Tibetan Plateau >4,000 m asl to reconstruct changes in temperature seasonality over the past three centuries. The new proxy evidence suggests that the onset of a decrease in summer-to-winter temperature difference over the Tibetan Plateau occurred in the 1870s. Our results imply that the influence of anthropogenic forcing on temperature seasonality might have started in the late nineteenth century, and that future human influence may further contribute to a weakening of the annual temperature cycle, with subsequent effects on ecosystem functioning and productivity.