Six hundred years of South American tree rings reveal an increase in severe hydroclimatic events since mid-20th century.

ABSTRACT: South American (SA) societies are highly vulnerable to droughts and pluvials, but lack of long-term climate observations severely limits our understanding of the global processes driving climatic variability in the region. The number and quality of SA climate-sensitive tree ring chronologies have significantly increased in recent decades, now providing a robust network of 286 records for characterizing hydroclimate variability since 1400 CE. We combine this network with a self-calibrated Palmer Drought Severity Index (scPDSI) dataset to derive the South American Drought Atlas (SADA) over the continent south of 12°S. The gridded annual reconstruction of austral summer scPDSI is the most spatially complete estimate of SA hydroclimate to date, and well matches past historical dry/wet events.

SUBMITTER: Morales MS 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7382209 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature