Last year was the hottest on record both globally and in China, with extreme weather events wreaking havoc worldwide and natural disasters causing $310 billion in economic losses, according to one estimate.

Research published this month, based on an analysis of the rings of Qilian Juniper trees on the Tibetan Plateau, offers a glimpse into how climate stress shaped societies and power shifts millennia ago.

"Given growing concerns about global climate change, it is critical to understand both historical and current shifts in the hydroclimate," the researchers wrote in the report published in the prestigious Nature journal.

Changes in the tree rings' isotopes -- forms of a chemical element with specific properties -- can be used to understand precipitation variations over time.

This enabled the researchers, many from the Chinese Academy of Sciences, to reconstruct a climate record for the past 3,476 years.

"Our hydroclimate reconstruction indicates that the rise and fall of several Chinese dynasties corresponds with the timing of significant shifts towards arid conditions, with three distinct phases of long-term precipitation decline following the long humid period," the report said.

During the first drought phase -- which ran from 110 BC to 280 AD -- the short-lived Xin Dynasty was established and then rapidly declined.

When the climate became arid after 14 AD, famine and instances of cannibalism increased, leading to widespread uprisings and eventually culminating in the dynasty's overthrow, the report said.

This drought period also coincided with the wars during the Three Kingdoms Period, which along with a widespread famine caused by the drought, led to a significant decrease in China's population from 60 million to 30 million, the report said.

The second phase was between 330 and 770 AD, taking in the Tuyuhun, Sui and Tang dynasties.

The third phase -- 950 to 1300 AD -- corresponds with the Song dynasty and its decline.

"The humid conditions in the earlier stages of each dynasty were associated with periods of prosperity, while the progressive shift toward aridity consistently coincided with their decline and eventual collapse," the report added.