Reconstructing climate and hydrological variability in the Canadian cordillera

在加拿大科迪勒拉山脉和邻近的大草原，目前和未来气候变化的最关键影响将与灌溉、水力发电、人类消费等用水需求增加时的可用性有关。该项目通过对过去水文气候和积雪变化进行树木年轮重建、检查仪器记录的流量变化和记录冰川覆盖的最近变化，研究加拿大科迪勒拉选定地区水文循环组成部分的空间和时间变化。美国最近的研究表明，在过去的50年里，冬季积雪明显减少，径流时间提前，流量季节分布发生变化，这可能会严重影响夏季流量。正在进行的研究表明，这些强烈的连贯性区域模式的变化，在冬季积雪，冰川质量平衡和夏季径流的PDO，ENSO和全球温度的变化驱动。该项目的一个关键要素是识别那些具有对冬季降水或积雪敏感的树轮系列的树种，以便对夏季溪流进行水文上现实的重建。它还将对过去几十年来某些冰川最近（在某些情况下每年）的衰退情况作出估计。这些研究将有助于建立一个新的国际跨学科合作研究网络，该网络由IAI资助，研究北美、墨西哥、玻利维亚、智利和阿根廷的科迪勒拉山脉的水文气候变化。该项目还将继续以前的长期研究，利用树木年轮和冰川波动来研究加拿大科迪勒拉山脉的气候历史、变化和变化。利用一个新的数据库进行的研究将重建育空地区过去2-300年的温度变化。这些年表还可用于提供育空地区内冰川进展和其他主要环境变化的精确日历年龄。

The most critical impacts of ongoing and future climate changes in the Canadian Cordillera and adjacent prairies will be related to the availability of water for irrigation, hydro power, human consumption, etc. in times of increased demand. This project examines the spatial and temporal variability of components of the hydrological cycle in selected regions of the Canadian Cordillera by developing tree-ring reconstructions of past hydroclimate and snowpack variability, examination of changes in the instrumental streamflow record and documentation of recent changes in glacier cover. Recent studies from the US have shown marked reductions in winter snowpack, earlier streamflow timing and changes in the seasonal distribution of flows during the last 50 years that could critically affect summer flows. Ongoing studies show these strong coherent regional patterns of variation in winter snowpack, glacier mass balance and summer streamflow are driven by variations in the PDO, ENSO and global temperatures. A critical element of the project will be to identify those tree species with tree-ring series sensitive to winter precipitation or snowpack in order to develop hydrologically realistic reconstructions of summer streamflows. It will also develop estimates of recent (in some cases annual) recession of selected glaciers for the past few decades. These studies will contribute to a new international, interdisciplinary Collaborative Research Network funded by IAI that examines hydroclimatic variability in the cordillera of North America, Mexico, Bolivia, Chile and Argentina.This project will also continue previous long term studies using tree-rings and glacier fluctuations to investigate climate history, variability and change in the Canadian Cordillera. Studies using a new database of over 150 chronologies will reconstruct temperature variability across the Yukon for the last 2-300 years. These chronologies can also be used to provide precise calendar ages for glacier advances and other major environmental changes within the Yukon.