Regional Multiproxy Climate Reconstruction for Southern South America: A new Research Initiative

Regional high-resolution multi-proxy climate reconstructions and associated uncertainties for the last ca. 1000 years is a priority area of future research within IGBP-PAGES (Wanner 2005). Considerable progress has been made in the reconstruction technique, in the handling of a wide range of highand low-frequency proxy data, and in the quantity and quality of proxy data sets available at continental and northern hemispheric or global scale (e.g. Mann et al. 1998; Jones et al. 2001; Esper et al. 2002; Briffa and Osborn 2002; Luterbacher et al. 2004; Moberg et al. 2005). Regional reconstructions are particularly important since regional climate change and extremes exhibit much larger amplitudes than hemispherical and global reconstructions. The monthly to seasonal temperature multiproxy reconstruction for Europe since 1500 AD (Luterbacher et al. 2004; Xoplaki et al. 2005) and the drought reconstruction for the western US (Cook et al. 2004) have set new standards for regional scales. Similar studies are missing for other regions of the world. Starting in October 2005 under the umbrella of PAGES, a collaborative longterm initiative will seek (i) to collate the large number of disperse already existing and new paleoclimate data sets (documentary data, early instrumental data, data from tree rings, glaciers and ice cores, high resolution marine and lake sediments, pollen data of peat cores etc.) for the last ca. 1000 years available for South America, and (ii) to use the Mann et al. (1998), Luterbacher et al. (2004) and Moberg et al. (2005) methodologies to work towards a regional reconstruction at different temporal and spatial resolution with associated uncertainties for southern South America. This project is conceived as a collaborative initiative that will involve many research groups from different countries working within a common frame for a common goal. A fi rst coordinative meeting will take place at Mendoza in October 2005 to set up the organizational frame and to discuss participation of groups in the project and contributions of data sets. A formal announcement and invitation for collaboration will follow thereafter. A fi rst science meeting is planned for October 2006. The initiative is coordinated by Ricardo Villalba (IANIGLA Mendoza, Argentina, PAGES SSC member) and Martin Grosjean (NCCR Climate, University of Bern, Switzerland). If you wish to be on the mailing list, please contact Ricardo Villalba (ricardo@lab.cricyt.edu.ar) or Martin Grosjean (grosjean@giub.unibe. ch).