Reconstructed precipitation in the Lohit River basin, southern Tibetan Plateau since 1720 CE and its weak linkages with monsoon-season Brahmaputra discharge

High Asian glaciers and precipitation have directly or indirectly influenced the freshwater supply of billions of people and natural ecosystems in surrounding areas. To better understand the hydroclimatic changes in the High Asian transboundary river basins in the context of global warming, more precipitation-sensitive proxy data are needed. In this paper, we used the tree-ring cores of Pinus densata and Picea brachytyla from the southern Tibetan Plateau (TP) to establish a tree-ring-width composite chronology and estimate hydrological annual (September-August) precipitation (r(2) = 47.0%, p < 0.01) for the Lohit River basin from 1720 to 2019. Our reconstructed precipitation was closely linked with the glacier mass balance of Shishapangma peak, which may provide us with some evidence for glacier fluctuations in the southern TP. Our precipitation reconstruction successfully captured recent dry trends and generally agreed with other tree-ring-based precipitation reconstructions from nearby regions. In addition, reconstructed precipitation variations were inconsistent with recorded monsoon-season Brahmaputra discharge.