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

这项研究以下列科学假设为中心：i)北美季风在全新世中期由于当地较高的太阳辐射而增强；ii)区域水文气候在几十年至百年的时间尺度上经历了很大的变化，而仪器数据没有认识到这一点，并且可能没有被相对较短的年轮重建所反映；iii)过去的千年经历了十年/多十年干旱间隔之间的突变；以及iv)西南干旱可能与来自太平洋和大西洋的大规模海气强迫有关。更广泛的影响包括支持学生和提供可能用于区域水资源管理的数据。该奖项由2009年美国复苏和再投资法案(公法111-5)资助。

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).