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Drought variability in the eastern Australia and New Zealand summer drought atlas (ANZDA, CE 1500–2012) modulated by the Interdecadal Pacific Oscillation

Year: 2015
Type: article
Abstract: Agricultural production across eastern Australia and New Zealand is highly vulnerable to drought, but there is a dearth of observational drought information prior to CE 1850. Using a comprehensive network of 176 drought-sensitive tree-ring chronologies and one coral series, we report the first Southern Hemisphere gridded drought atlas extending back to CE 1500. The austral summer (December–February) Palmer drought sensitivity index reconstruction accurately reproduces historically documented drought events associated with the first European settlement of Australia in CE 1788, and the leading principal component explains over 50% of the underlying variance. This leading mode of variability is strongly related to the Interdecadal Pacific Oscillation tripole index (IPO), with a strong and robust antiphase correlation between (1) eastern Australia and the New Zealand North Island and (2) the South Island. Reported positive, negative, and neutral phases of the IPO are consistently reconstructed by the drought atlas although the relationship since CE 1976 appears to have weakened.
DOI: 10.1088/1748-9326/10/12/124002
Authors: Jonathan G Palmer, Edward R Cook, Chris S M Turney, Kathy Allen, Pavla Fenwick, Benjamin I Cook, Alison O’Donnell, Janice Lough, Pauline Grierson, Patrick Baker
Institutions: UNSW Sydney, Climate Change Research Centre, Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, Columbia University, The University of Melbourne, Goddard Institute for Space Studies, The University of Western Australia, Australian Institute of Marine Science
Language: English
Open Access status: gold
Estimated APC paid: $3,045
Awards: Reconstructing millennial-scale streamflow variability to assess near-future risks to water-generated renewable energy, Climate-related regime shifts in inland semi-arid ecosystems through ecohydrological proxies, Climate-proofing southeastern Australia's native forests: where, when, and how?, Tipping points in Records of Extreme Events in Australasia: Using the Past to Understand and Plan for Abrupt Future Climate Change, The divergence phenomenon in tree-ring-reconstructed temperatures: global problem or Northern Hemisphere anomaly?, Reconstructing the historical frequency and intensity of Australian droughts: A multi-species dendrochronological approach, Reconstructing changes in atmospheric circulation over the mid-latitudes of the Southern Hemisphere during the past 3000 years
OpenAlex ID: W2247809708
FWCI: 9.646
Cites: 58
Cited by: 191
Related to: 10