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    Long-Term Hydroclimatic Change in the U.S. Rocky Mountain Region: Implications for Ecosystems and Water Resources

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    Author
    Pederson, Gregory Thomas
    Issue Date
    2010
    Keywords
    Climate Change
    Paleoclimate
    Snow Water Equivalent
    Streamflow
    Tree-Rings
    Water Resources
    Advisor
    Graumlich, Lisa J.
    Committee Chair
    Graumlich, Lisa J.
    
    Metadata
    Show full item record
    Publisher
    The University of Arizona.
    Rights
    Copyright © is held by the author. Digital access to this material is made possible by the University Libraries, University of Arizona. Further transmission, reproduction or presentation (such as public display or performance) of protected items is prohibited except with permission of the author.
    Abstract
    Both natural and anthropogenic climate change are driven by forcings that interact and result in hydroclimatic changes that alter ecosystems and natural resources at different temporal and spatial scales. Accordingly, changes within regions (i.e. individual points to large watersheds) may differ from patterns observed at sub-continental to global scales, thus necessitating the generation of point- to region-specific, cross-scale hydroclimatic data to elucidate important drivers of observed changes, and provide information at scales relevant to resource managers. Herein, we use the Northern U.S. Rocky Mountains as a study region to explore 1) the covariability between observed hydrologic and climatic changes, 2) the nature of changes occurring at the scale of days to decades, and 3) the ocean-atmosphere teleconnections operating at continental- to hemispheric-scales underlying the observed regional patterns of hydroclimatic variability. We then expand the scope of study to include the entire central North American Cordillera to investigate changes in winter precipitation (i.e. snowpack) spanning the last millennia+, with a focus on the spatial and temporal coherence of events from the medieval climatic anomaly to present. To accomplish this we utilize the full suite of hydroclimatic observational records in conjunction with proxy records of snowpack derived from a distributed network of tree-ring chronologies.Results from observational records in the Northern Rockies show important changes have occurred in the frequency and means of biophysically important temperature thresholds, and that recent changes appear greater in magnitude at the mid- to high-elevations. These changes, coupled with interannual- to interdecadal-scale moisture variability driven by ocean-atmosphere teleconnections, are shown to be strong controls on the timing and amount of regional snowpack and streamflow. Across the cordillera, tree-ring based records of snowpack show that before 1950, the region exhibited substantial inter-basin variability in snowpack, even during prolonged droughts and pluvials, marked by a predominant north-south dipole associated with Pacific variability. Snowpack was unusually low in the Northern Rocky Mountains for much of the 20th century and over the entire cordillera since the 1980s; heralding a new era of snowpack declines entrained across all major headwaters in western North America.
    Type
    text
    Electronic Dissertation
    Degree Name
    Ph.D.
    Degree Level
    doctoral
    Degree Program
    Natural Resources
    Graduate College
    Degree Grantor
    University of Arizona
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