Potential for tree rings to reveal spatial patterns of past drought variability across western Australia
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 15550375 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Alison J O’Donnell (0000-0001-7597-7965, The University of Western Australia, corresponding author), Edward R Cook (0000-0001-7478-4176, Columbia University), Jonathan G Palmer, Jonathan Palmer (0000-0002-6665-4483, UNSW Sydney), Chris Turney (0000-0001-6733-0993, Environmental Earth Sciences), Chris S M Turney, Pauline F Grierson (0000-0003-2135-0272, The University of Western Australia) |
| Year | 2017 |
| Volume | 13 |
| Issue | 2 |
| Pages | 024020-024020 |
| Publication date | 2017-12-15 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Environmental Research Letters (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1748-9326 • E-ISSN: 1748-9326 |
| Publisher | IOP Publishing (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1088/1748-9326/aaa204 |
| OpenAlex | W2774454796 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 58 |
Proxy records have provided major insights into the variability of past climates over long timescales. However, for much of the Southern Hemisphere, the ability to identify spatial patterns of past climatic variability is constrained by the sparse distribution of proxy records. This is particularly true for mainland Australia, where relatively few proxy records are located. Here, we (1) assess the potential to use existing proxy records in the Australasian region—starting with the only two multi-century tree-ring proxies from mainland Australia—to reveal spatial patterns of past hydroclimatic variability across the western third of the continent, and (2) identify strategic locations to target for the development of new proxy records. We show that the two existing tree-ring records allow robust reconstructions of past hydroclimatic variability over spatially broad areas (i.e. > 3° × 3°) in inland north- and south-western Australia. Our results reveal synchronous periods of drought and wet conditions between the inland northern and southern regions of western Australia as well as a generally anti-phase relationship with hydroclimate in eastern Australia over the last two centuries. The inclusion of 174 tree-ring proxy records from Tasmania, New Zealand and Indonesia and a coral record from Queensland did not improve the reconstruction potential over western Australia. However, our findings suggest that the addition of relatively few new proxy records from key locations in western Australia that currently have low reconstruction skill will enable the development of a comprehensive drought atlas for the region, and provide a critical link to the drought atlases of monsoonal Asia and eastern Australia and New Zealand
Archaeology · Climatology · Dendrochronology · Geography · Historical record · Mainland · Physical geography · Proxy (statistics · Southern Hemisphere · Climate variability and models · Plant Water Relations and Carbon Dynamics · Tree-ring climate responses · Geology · History
Methods of Dendrochronology
Old World megadroughts and pluvials during the Common Era
Long-Term Aridity Changes in the Western United States
Asian Monsoon Failure and Megadrought During the Last Millennium
North American drought
Megadroughts in North America
The Millennium Drought in southeast Australia (2001–2009)
| Citation velocity | historical |
|---|---|
| Highly cited | No |