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Four Decades of Surface Temperature, Precipitation, and Wind Speed Trends over Lakes of Greece. SUSTAINABILITY 2021. [DOI: 10.3390/su13179908] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/02/2023]
Abstract
Climate change is known to affect world’s lakes in many ways. Lake warming is perhaps the most prominent impact of climate change but there is evidence that changes of precipitation and wind speed over the surface of the lakes may also have a significant effect on key limnological processes. With this study we explored the interannual trends of surface temperature, precipitation, and wind speed over 18 lakes of Greece using ERA5-Land data spanning over a period of almost four decades. We used generalized additive models (GAMs) to conduct time-series analysis in order to identify significant trends of change. Our results showed that surface temperature has significantly increased in all lakes with an average rate of change for annual temperature of 0.43 °C decade−1. With regard to precipitation, we identified significant trends for most lakes and particularly we found that precipitation decreased during the first two decades (1981–2000), but since 2000 it increased notably. Finally, wind speed did not show any significant change over the examined period with the exception for one lake. In summary, our work highlights the major climatic changes that have occurred in several freshwater bodies of Greece. Thus, it improves our understanding on how climate change may have impacted the ecology of these important ecosystems and may aid us to identify systems that are more vulnerable to future changes.
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Carroll HM, Wanamaker AD, Clark LG, Wilsey BJ. Ragweed and sagebrush pollen can distinguish between vegetation types at broad spatial scales. Ecosphere 2020. [DOI: 10.1002/ecs2.3120] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/12/2022] Open
Affiliation(s)
- Hannah M. Carroll
- Department of Ecology, Evolution, and Organismal Biology Iowa State University Ames Iowa 50011 USA
| | - Alan D. Wanamaker
- Department of Geological and Atmospheric Sciences Iowa State University Ames Iowa 50011 USA
| | - Lynn G. Clark
- Department of Ecology, Evolution, and Organismal Biology Iowa State University Ames Iowa 50011 USA
| | - Brian J. Wilsey
- Department of Ecology, Evolution, and Organismal Biology Iowa State University Ames Iowa 50011 USA
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3
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Drought in the Western United States: Its Connections with Large-Scale Oceanic Oscillations. ATMOSPHERE 2019. [DOI: 10.3390/atmos10020082] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/17/2022]
Abstract
In this paper, we applied the Empirical Orthogonal Function (EOF) analysis on a drought index expressed as consecutive dry days (CDD) to identify the drought variability in western United States. Based on the EOF analysis, correlation maps were generated between the leading principle component (PC) of seasonal CDD and sea surface temperature (SST) anomalies to explore the dynamic context of the leading modes in CDD. The EOF analysis indicates that the spatiotemporal pattern of winter CDD is related to an integrated impact from El Niño–Southern Oscillation (ENSO), Pacific Decadal Oscillation (PDO), and Atlantic Multi-decadal Oscillation (AMO), while summer CDD is mainly controlled by PDO phases. We also calculated seasonal CDD anomalies during selected climatic phases to further evaluate the impacts of large-scale oceanic oscillation on the spatial pattern of droughts. We found that AMO+/PDO− will contribute to a consistent drought condition during the winter in the western United States. El Niño will bring a dry winter to the northern part of western United States while La Niña will bring a dry winter to the southern part. During El Niño years, the drought center changes with the type of El Niño events. Considering the future states of the examined ocean oscillations, we suggest possible drier than normal conditions in the western United States for upcoming decades, and moreover, an intensified drought for the coast areas of the north Pacific region and upper Mississippi River Basin.
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Karthikeyan P, Vennila G, Venkatachalapathy R, Subramani T, Prakash R, Aswini MK. Assessment of heavy metals in the surface sediments of the Emerald Lake using of spatial distribution and multivariate techniques. ENVIRONMENTAL MONITORING AND ASSESSMENT 2018; 190:668. [PMID: 30349956 DOI: 10.1007/s10661-018-7037-0] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/16/2018] [Accepted: 10/08/2018] [Indexed: 06/08/2023]
Abstract
The study aims to assess the heavy metals such as cobalt (Co), nickel (Ni), lead (Pb), chromium (Cr), cupper (Cu), zinc (Zn), manganese (Mn), and iron (Fe) from 25 surface sediment samples at different sites of the Emerald Lake, Tamilnadu, India using spatial distribution and multivariate techniques like Pearson correlation matrix and principal component analysis. From the result, the ranges of Fe, Cu, Cr, Mn, Zn, Ni, Co, and Pb are noticed to be 78,128 to 132,876; 314 to 462; 336 to 523; 520 to 701; 20.1 to 53.21; 128 to 215; 91 to 129.9; and 151 to 158 μg g-1, respectively. The order of the average heavy metals concentration is Fe > Mn > Cr > Cu > Pb > Zn > Co > Ni. From the result, Ni, Cu, Cr, Pb, and Cd are found to be considerably correlated as they are usually related to anthropogenic activities, wastewater, and sewage. From the principal corresponding analysis (PCA) results retrieved from PC3 suggest that Fe, Mn, Cr, Cu, Pb, and Ni have common origin and are mainly due to anthropogenic input, inorganic fertilizers in agriculture, human activities, sewage effluents, traffic, and boat activities. The study relatively provides a significant approach for heavy metal pollution origin in the surface sediment in the Emerald Lake.
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Affiliation(s)
- P Karthikeyan
- Department of Civil Engineering, K. S. Rangasamy College of Technology, Tiruchengode, Tamil Nadu, 637215, India.
| | - G Vennila
- Department of Civil Engineering, K. S. Rangasamy College of Technology, Tiruchengode, Tamil Nadu, 637215, India
| | | | - T Subramani
- Department of Mining Engineering, College of Engineering Guindy, Anna University, Chennai, 600025, India
| | - R Prakash
- Department of Earth Sciences, Pondicherry University, Puducherry, 605014, India
| | - M K Aswini
- Centre for Geotechnology, Manonmaniam Sundaranar University, Tirunelveli, Tamil Nadu, 627012, India
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Waito J, Girardin MP, Tardif JC, Conciatori F, Bergeron Y, Ali AA. Recent fire activity in the boreal eastern interior of North America is below that of the past 2000 yr. Ecosphere 2018. [DOI: 10.1002/ecs2.2287] [Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/18/2022] Open
Affiliation(s)
- Justin Waito
- Centre for Forest Interdisciplinary Research (C-FIR); University of Winnipeg; 515 Portage Avenue Winnipeg Manitoba R3B 29E Canada
| | - Martin P. Girardin
- Canadian Forest Service; Natural Resources Canada; 1055 rue du P.E.P.S., P.O. Box 10380, Ste-Foy Station Quebec Quebec G1V 4C7 Canada
- Centre d’Étude de la Forêt; Université du Québec à Montréal; C.P. 8888 Montreal Quebec H3C 3P8 Canada
| | - Jacques C. Tardif
- Centre for Forest Interdisciplinary Research (C-FIR); University of Winnipeg; 515 Portage Avenue Winnipeg Manitoba R3B 29E Canada
- Centre d’Étude de la Forêt; Université du Québec à Montréal; C.P. 8888 Montreal Quebec H3C 3P8 Canada
| | - France Conciatori
- Centre for Forest Interdisciplinary Research (C-FIR); University of Winnipeg; 515 Portage Avenue Winnipeg Manitoba R3B 29E Canada
| | - Yves Bergeron
- Centre d’Étude de la Forêt; Université du Québec à Montréal; C.P. 8888 Montreal Quebec H3C 3P8 Canada
- Chaire Industrielle en Aménagement Forestier Durable (NSERC-UQAT-UQAM); Institut de Recherche sur les Forêts; Université du Québec en Abitibi-Témiscamingue; 445 boulevard de l’ Université Rouyn-Noranda Quebec J9X 5E4 Canada
| | - Adam A. Ali
- Institut des Sciences de l’Évolution (UMR 5554); Université de Montpellier; 2 place Eugène Bataillon 34095 Montpellier Cedex 5 France
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McLauchlan KK, Higuera PE, Gavin DG, Perakis SS, Mack MC, Alexander H, Battles J, Biondi F, Buma B, Colombaroli D, Enders SK, Engstrom DR, Hu FS, Marlon JR, Marshall J, McGlone M, Morris JL, Nave LE, Shuman B, Smithwick EAH, Urrego DH, Wardle DA, Williams CJ, Williams JJ. Reconstructing Disturbances and Their Biogeochemical Consequences over Multiple Timescales. Bioscience 2014. [DOI: 10.1093/biosci/bit017] [Citation(s) in RCA: 75] [Impact Index Per Article: 7.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/12/2022] Open
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Moss B. Cogs in the endless machine: lakes, climate change and nutrient cycles: a review. THE SCIENCE OF THE TOTAL ENVIRONMENT 2012; 434:130-142. [PMID: 21962562 DOI: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2011.07.069] [Citation(s) in RCA: 49] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/05/2011] [Revised: 07/23/2011] [Accepted: 07/29/2011] [Indexed: 05/31/2023]
Abstract
Lakes have, rather grandly, been described as sentinels, integrators and regulators of climate change (Williamson et al., Limnol. Oceanogr. 2009; 54: 2273-82). Lakes are also part of the continuum of the water cycle, cogs in a machine that processes water and elements dissolved and suspended in myriad forms. Assessing the changes in the functioning of the cogs and the machine with respect to these substances as climate changes is clearly important, but difficult. Many other human-induced influences, not least eutrophication, that impact on catchment areas and consequently on lakes, have generally complicated the recording of recent change in sediment records and modern sets of data. The least confounded evidence comes from remote lakes in mountain and polar regions and suggests effects of warming that include mobilisation of ions and increased amounts of phosphorus. A cottage industry has arisen in deduction and prediction of the future effects of climate change on lakes, but the results are very general and precision is marred not only by confounding influences but by the complexity of the lake system and the infinite variety of possible future scenarios. A common conclusion, however, is that warming will increase the intensity of symptoms of eutrophication. Direct experimentation, though expensive and still unusual and confined to shallow lake and wetland systems is perhaps the most reliable approach. Results suggest increased symptoms of eutrophication, and changes in ecosystem structure, but in some respects are different from those deduced from comparisons along latitudinal gradients or by inference from knowledge of lake behaviour. Experiments have shown marked increases in community respiration compared with gross photosynthesis in mesocosm systems and it may be that the most significant churnings of these cogs in the earth-air-water machine will be in their influence on the carbon cycle, with possibly large positive feedback effects on warming.
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Affiliation(s)
- Brian Moss
- School of Environmental Sciences, University of Liverpool, Liverpool, UK.
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8
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Laird KR, Haig HA, Ma S, Kingsbury MV, Brown TA, Lewis CFM, Oglesby RJ, Cumming BF. Expanded spatial extent of the Medieval Climate Anomaly revealed in lake-sediment records across the boreal region in northwest Ontario. GLOBAL CHANGE BIOLOGY 2012; 18:2869-2881. [PMID: 24501064 DOI: 10.1111/j.1365-2486.2012.02740.x] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/15/2012] [Revised: 04/20/2012] [Accepted: 04/24/2012] [Indexed: 06/03/2023]
Abstract
Multi-decadal to centennial-scale shifts in effective moisture over the past two millennia are inferred from sedimentary records from six lakes spanning a ~250 km region in northwest Ontario. This is the first regional application of a technique developed to reconstruct drought from drainage lakes (open lakes with surface outlets). This regional network of proxy drought records is based on individual within-lake calibration models developed using diatom assemblages collected from surface sediments across a water-depth gradient. Analysis of diatom assemblages from sediment cores collected close to the near-shore ecological boundary between benthic and planktonic diatom taxa indicated this boundary shifted over time in all lakes. These shifts are largely dependent on climate-driven influences, and can provide a sensitive record of past drought. Our lake-sediment records indicate two periods of synchronous signals, suggesting a common large-scale climate forcing. The first is a period of prolonged aridity during the Medieval Climate Anomaly (MCA, c. 900-1400 CE). Documentation of aridity across this region expands the known spatial extent of the MCA megadrought into a region that historically has not experienced extreme droughts such as those in central and western north America. The second synchronous period is the recent signal of the past ~100 years, which indicates a change to higher effective moisture that may be related to anthropogenic forcing on climate. This approach has the potential to fill regional gaps, where many previous paleo-lake depth methods (based on deeper centrally located cores) were relatively insensitive. By filling regional gaps, a better understanding of past spatial patterns in drought can be used to assess the sensitivity and realism of climate model projections of future climate change. This type of data is especially important for validating high spatial resolution, regional climate models.
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Affiliation(s)
- Kathleen R Laird
- Paleoecological Environmental Assessment and Research Laboratory (PEARL), Department of Biology, Queen's University, Biosciences Complex, Kingston, ON, K7L 3N6, Canada
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Dutilleul P, Cumming BF, Lontoc-Roy M. Autocorrelogram and Periodogram Analyses of Palaeolimnological Temporal-Series from Lakes in Central and Western North America to Assess Shifts in Drought Conditions. TRACKING ENVIRONMENTAL CHANGE USING LAKE SEDIMENTS 2012. [DOI: 10.1007/978-94-007-2745-8_16] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/24/2023]
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10
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Nippert JB, Fay PA, Carlisle JD, Knapp AK, Smith MD. Ecophysiological responses of two dominant grasses to altered temperature and precipitation regimes. ACTA OECOLOGICA-INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF ECOLOGY 2009. [DOI: 10.1016/j.actao.2009.01.010] [Citation(s) in RCA: 46] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/17/2022]
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11
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Macias Fauria M, Johnson EA. Climate and wildfires in the North American boreal forest. Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci 2008; 363:2317-29. [PMID: 18006414 PMCID: PMC2606782 DOI: 10.1098/rstb.2007.2202] [Citation(s) in RCA: 90] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/12/2022] Open
Abstract
The area burned in the North American boreal forest is controlled by the frequency of mid-tropospheric blocking highs that cause rapid fuel drying. Climate controls the area burned through changing the dynamics of large-scale teleconnection patterns (Pacific Decadal Oscillation/El Niño Southern Oscillation and Arctic Oscillation, PDO/ENSO and AO) that control the frequency of blocking highs over the continent at different time scales. Changes in these teleconnections may be caused by the current global warming. Thus, an increase in temperature alone need not be associated with an increase in area burned in the North American boreal forest. Since the end of the Little Ice Age, the climate has been unusually moist and variable: large fire years have occurred in unusual years, fire frequency has decreased and fire-climate relationships have occurred at interannual to decadal time scales. Prolonged and severe droughts were common in the past and were partly associated with changes in the PDO/ENSO system. Under these conditions, large fire years become common, fire frequency increases and fire-climate relationships occur at decadal to centennial time scales. A suggested return to the drier climate regimes of the past would imply major changes in the temporal dynamics of fire-climate relationships and in area burned, a reduction in the mean age of the forest, and changes in species composition of the North American boreal forest.
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Affiliation(s)
- Marc Macias Fauria
- Department of Biological Sciences, University of Calgary, Calgary, Alberta, Canada T2N 1N4.
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12
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Feng S, Oglesby RJ, Rowe CM, Loope DB, Hu Q. Atlantic and Pacific SST influences on Medieval drought in North America simulated by the Community Atmospheric Model. ACTA ACUST UNITED AC 2008. [DOI: 10.1029/2007jd009347] [Citation(s) in RCA: 74] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/09/2022]
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13
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Schindler DW, Donahue WF. An impending water crisis in Canada's western prairie provinces. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 2006; 103:7210-6. [PMID: 16606829 PMCID: PMC1564278 DOI: 10.1073/pnas.0601568103] [Citation(s) in RCA: 97] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/18/2022] Open
Abstract
Canada is usually considered to be a country with abundant freshwater, but in its western prairie provinces (WPP), an area 1/5 the size of Europe, freshwater is scarce. European settlement of the WPP did not begin until the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Fortuitously, the period since European settlement appears to have been the wettest century of the past two millennia. The frequent, long periods of drought that characterized earlier centuries of the past two millennia were largely absent in the 20th century. Here, we show that climate warming and human modifications to catchments have already significantly reduced the flows of major rivers of the WPP during the summer months, when human demand and in-stream flow needs are greatest. We predict that in the near future climate warming, via its effects on glaciers, snowpacks, and evaporation, will combine with cyclic drought and rapidly increasing human activity in the WPP to cause a crisis in water quantity and quality with far-reaching implications.
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Affiliation(s)
- D W Schindler
- Department of Biological Sciences, University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB, Canada T6G 2E9.
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15
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Brown KJ, Clark JS, Grimm EC, Donovan JJ, Mueller PG, Hansen BCS, Stefanova I. Fire cycles in North American interior grasslands and their relation to prairie drought. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 2005; 102:8865-70. [PMID: 15956200 PMCID: PMC1150278 DOI: 10.1073/pnas.0503621102] [Citation(s) in RCA: 91] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/18/2022] Open
Abstract
High-resolution analyses of a late Holocene core from Kettle Lake in North Dakota reveal coeval fluctuations in loss-on-ignition carbonate content, percentage of grass pollen, and charcoal flux. These oscillations are indicative of climate-fuel-fire cycles that have prevailed on the Northern Great Plains (NGP) for most of the late Holocene. High charcoal flux occurred during past moist intervals when grass cover was extensive and fuel loads were high, whereas reduced charcoal flux characterized the intervening droughts when grass cover, and hence fuel loads, decreased, illustrating that fire is not a universal feature of the NGP through time but oscillates with climate. Spectral and wavelet analyses reveal that the cycles have a periodicity of approximately = 160 yr, although secular trends in the cycles are difficult to identify for the entire Holocene because the periodicity in the early Holocene ranged between 80 and 160 yr. Although the cycles are evident for most of the last 4,500 yr, their occasional muting adds further to the overall climatic complexity of the plains. These findings clearly show that the continental interior of North America has experienced short-term climatic cycles accompanied by a marked landscape response for several millennia, regularly alternating between dual landscape modes. The documentation of cycles of similar duration at other sites in the NGP, western North America, and Greenland suggests some degree of regional coherence to climatic forcing. Accordingly, the effects of global warming from increasing greenhouse gases will be superimposed on this natural variability of drought.
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Affiliation(s)
- K J Brown
- Department of Biology, Duke University, P.O. Box 90338, Durham, NC 27708, USA.
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16
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Beaudoin AB. On the Identification and Characterization of Drought and Aridity in Postglacial Paleoenvironmental Records from the Northern Great Plains. ACTA ACUST UNITED AC 2004. [DOI: 10.7202/009108ar] [Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/17/2022]
Abstract
Abstract
The Northern Great Plains region is especially sensitive to drought and is likely to be even more drought-prone under projected global warming. Drought has been invoked as an explanatory factor for changes seen in postglacial paleoenvironmental records. These proxy records may extend drought history derived from instrumental data. Moreover, in the last decade, some paleoenvironmental studies have been expressly undertaken for the examination of long-term drought history. Nevertheless, few such studies explicitly define drought. This makes it difficult to compare results or to understand what the results mean in terms of the operational drought definitions that are used in resource management. Operational drought is defined as usually short-term; longer sustained dry intervals reflect a shift to aridity. Therefore, high resolution paleoenvironmental proxies (annual or subdecadal) are best for the investigation of drought history. Such proxies include tree rings and some lake records. However, most lake-based records are sampled at lower resolution (decadal or subcentury) and are therefore providing aridity signals.
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Affiliation(s)
- Alwynne B. Beaudoin
- Quaternary Environments, Provincial Museum of Alberta, 12845-102nd Avenue, Edmonton, Alberta T5N 0M6
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17
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Sauchyn DJ, Barrow EM, Hopkinson RF, Leavitt PR. Aridity on the Canadian Plains. ACTA ACUST UNITED AC 2004. [DOI: 10.7202/009109ar] [Citation(s) in RCA: 33] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/17/2022]
Abstract
Abstract
The Prairie Ecozone is the only major region of Canada where drought is a landscape hazard; aridity is linked to soil erosion. Management of prairie ecosystems and soil landscapes therefore requires an understanding of past and future trends and variability in regional aridity. We used instrumental and paleoclimatic records to define a regional baseline for prairie aridity, to evaluate the utility of modern climate normals (i.e. 1961-1990) as a benchmark for future climatic change, and to provide a historical context for a range of General Circulation Model (GCM) forecasts of regional aridity. A warm-dry scenario derived from the Canadian GCM projects a significant increase in the area of subhumid and semiarid climate. Tree rings and diatom-inferred lake salinity record prolonged arid events and show that the climate normal period of 1961-1990 may have been the most benign climate of the past 750 years. The climate of the 20th century was anomalous in terms of the absence of sustained drought. Because both lake and tree-ring analyses recorded an abrupt amelioration of climatic conditions near the start of the instrumental record, we suggest that the immediate impacts of future global warming may be to return the prairies to past conditions in which persistent aridity was recorded for intervals of decades or longer.
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Affiliation(s)
- David J. Sauchyn
- Prairie Adaptation Research Collaborative, University of Regina, 150-10 Research Drive, Regina, Saskatchewan S4S 7J7
| | - Elaine M. Barrow
- Canadian Climate Impacts Scenarios (CCIS) Project, Environment Canada – Prairie and Northern Region, 2365 Albert Street, Room 300, Regina, Saskatchewan S4P 4K1
| | - Ron F. Hopkinson
- Meteorological Service of Canada, Environment Canada – Prairie and Northern Region, 2365 Albert Street, Room 300, Regina, Saskatchewan S4P 4K1
| | - Peter R. Leavitt
- Department of Biology, University of Regina, Regina, Saskatchewan S4S 0A2
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Cook ER, Woodhouse CA, Eakin CM, Meko DM, Stahle DW. Long-term aridity changes in the western United States. Science 2004; 306:1015-8. [PMID: 15472040 DOI: 10.1126/science.1102586] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1187] [Impact Index Per Article: 59.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/02/2022]
Abstract
The western United States is experiencing a severe multiyear drought that is unprecedented in some hydroclimatic records. Using gridded drought reconstructions that cover most of the western United States over the past 1200 years, we show that this drought pales in comparison to an earlier period of elevated aridity and epic drought in AD 900 to 1300, an interval broadly consistent with the Medieval Warm Period. If elevated aridity in the western United States is a natural response to climate warming, then any trend toward warmer temperatures in the future could lead to a serious long-term increase in aridity over western North America.
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Affiliation(s)
- Edward R Cook
- Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, Palisades, NY 10964, USA.
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