Tree rings help researchers decode climate change

A Sino-Kazakh research project initiated in 2016 has been using tree rings to gather information about changes in temperature, precipitation and glaciers.

Zhang Ruibo, a researcher with the China Meteorological Administration's Urumqi Desert Meteorological Institute, who participated in the expedition, told People's Daily in August that Kazakhstan's well-preserved environment enables experts to collect useful samples from old trees.

The Altai Mountains' foothills in the country's northeast are covered with Siberian pines, whose rings are sensitive to temperature differences over long time spans, People's Daily reported.