P2C2: Hydroclimatic Variability in the Southwest United States: New High-Resolution Speleothem Records of Past Drought

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Funding is provided to help characterize patterns of Holocene drought using new cave records from the Southwestern U.S. to better understand mechanisms of hydro-climatic variability in this arid region.The research is centered on the following science hypotheses: i) the North American monsoon intensified during the mid-Holocene due to higher local solar insolation; ii) regional hydro-climate undergoes substantial variability on multi-decadal to century time scales that are unrecognized in instrumental data and perhaps underrepresented by the comparatively shorter tree-ring reconstructions; iii) the past millennium experienced abrupt transitions among decadal/multi-decadal dry intervals; and iv) southwest drought can be linked to large-scale ocean-atmosphere forcing from both the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans.The broader impacts involve supporting students and providing data of potential use for regional water management.This award is funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-5).