Collaborative Research: Quantifying precipitation changes in the South American subtropics over the late Pleistocene

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Many regions of the world, including the Americas, are experiencing drought and its political consequences. The critical question is why, and are the causes natural or man-made? The answer to this and other questions will help us plan for what is ahead, as some regions of the planet continue to warm and dry. This project will focus on the central Andes of South America- a region that is both politically fragile and recently drought stricken. The aim is to study the interplay of temperature and drought in the past, for clues to their probable connections in the future. The main purpose of the project is to create a map of changes in the sizes of ancient lakes in the central Andes, giant ancestors to modern lakes in the region such as Lake Titicaca. Well-preserved shorelines mark the extent of these ancient lakes, and using state-of-the art techniques, the age of these features can be determined. The mapping and dating is vital to relating lake size (and therefore rainfall amounts in the past) to the changing temperature state of the planet, which is well known from other records. In short, these reconstructions will help scientists to better understand how rainfall in this region will change in the coming decades to centuries.This award is cofunded by the Paleo Perspectives on Climate Change Program and the Office of International Science and Engineering.