Precipitation variability in the Greater Yellowstone Region as inferred from 1000+ year tree-ring records

Montana State University, Bozeman MT

Investigators

Abstract

This award is for a study that will contribute to our understanding of the nature of persistent precipitation fluctuations by investigating the linkages between newly discovered long (1000+ years) tree-ring records from the Greater Yellowstone Region (GYR) and atmospheric circulation and sea surface temperature anomaly patterns in the Pacific Basin. Specifically, the project will address three questions: 1) what are long-term patterns of temporal and spatial variability of precipitation in the Greater Yellowstone region?; 2) how are multi-decadal patterns linked to indices of ocean-atmosphere interactions such as the Pacific Decadal Oscillation?; and 3) what do long-term records of precipitation imply about the frequency and duration of droughts in the GYR? These questions will be addressed through the development of tree-ring based reconstructions of winter precipitation for the past 1000+ years based on a multi-species network of sites in the GYR.