Collaborative Research: Historical Climatic Reconstructions for the Southeastern United States

College Of William And Mary, Williamsburg VA

Investigators

Abstract

This proposal seeks support for a study to develop high-resolution paleoclimatic records for the southeastern United States from instrumental and historical data extending back to the latter stages of the Little Ice Age (ca. 1750-1870). The rich documentary evidence will be used to improve our understanding of climate variability by: 1) reconstructing interannual to decadal variability of Southeast climate and integrating the results with dendroclimatological reconstructions of growing season conditions; 2) describing climatic responses as they relate to teleconnections of phenomena such and ENSO and NAO; 3) assessing decadal climatic variability that results from regional changes over the North Atlantic and larger areas; and 4) reconstructing landfall hurricane frequencies and relating temporal variations to climatic change.