On the Production of Climate Information in the High Mountain Forests of Guatemala

Dados Bibliográficos

ID3775985
AutoresDiego Pons (0000-0002-8615-7951, University of Denver), Matthew J Taylor (0000-0003-2009-6284), Matthew Taylor (0000-0003-3374-9598, University of Denver), Daniel Griffin (0000-0002-1547-3615, University of Minnesota), Edwin Castellanos (0000-0001-9775-0518, Universidad del Valle de Guatemala), Edwin J Castellanos, Kevin J Anchukaitis (0000-0002-8509-8080, University of Arizona)
Ano2017
Volume107
Fascículo2
Páginas323-335
Data de publicação2017-03-04
Peer ReviewedSim
Open AccessNão
TipoARTICLE
PeriódicoAnnals of the American Association of Geographers (JOURNAL)
Identificadores do periódicoISSN: 2469-4452 • E-ISSN: 2469-4460
EditoraInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/24694452.2016.1235481
OpenAlexW2546674933
IdiomaEN
Citações recebidas2
Referências citadas44

Guatemala's population is dependent on cash crops and subsistence agriculture, the yield of which depends on both the timing and quantity of rainfall. Detailed knowledge about Guatemala's past, current, and future climate is therefore critical to the well-being of a country so reliant on agriculture. Relatively little information about Guatemala's climate exists, though, due to sparse instrumental records and limited high-resolution paleoclimate data. Given this situation, the development of climate data is the necessary first step toward facilitating improved decision making and robust adaptation in the face of predicted future climate change. Here we document how we successfully used tree rings to produce an annually resolved paleoclimate record from Guatemala stretching back to the late seventeenth century. These data provide a more comprehensive understanding of the range of natural variability in local and regional hydroclimate. This increased understanding could then be used to generate locally relevant climate information, to assist in planning, and toward reducing climate-related vulnerability at regional to local scales in agriculturally dependent communities. Our goal herein is to begin to close the gap between climate data generation and the use of relevant agrometeorological information in Guatemala by identifying key participants, decision makers, and modes of stakeholder engagement that are critical to coproduce climate information in the mountain regions of Guatemala

Agriculture · Agroforestry · Climate change · Economics · Environmental resource management · Geography · Natural resource economics · Population · Subsistence agriculture · Climate variability and models · Environmental Science · Plant Water Relations and Carbon Dynamics · Tree-ring climate responses · Ecology