About the Authors

Bao Yang

yangbao@lzb.ac.cn

Affiliation Key Laboratory of Desert and Desertification, Cold and Arid Regions Environmental and Engineering Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Lanzhou, China

Minhui He

Affiliation Key Laboratory of Desert and Desertification, Cold and Arid Regions Environmental and Engineering Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Lanzhou, China

Thomas M. Melvin

Affiliation Climatic Research Unit, School of Environmental Sciences, University of East Anglia, Norwich, United Kingdom

Yan Zhao

Affiliation Institute of Geographic Science and Natural Resources Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China

Keith R. Briffa

Affiliation Climatic Research Unit, School of Environmental Sciences, University of East Anglia, Norwich, United Kingdom

Competing Interests

The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Author Contributions

Conceived and designed the experiments: BY. Performed the experiments: BY MH TM KB YZ. Analyzed the data: BY MH. Contributed reagents/materials/analysis tools: BY MH TM KB YZ. Wrote the paper: BY MH TM KB YZ.