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Multidecadal Changes in Wet Season Precipitation Totals Over the Eastern Amazon
Author(s) -
GranatoSouza Daniela,
Stahle David W.,
Torbenson Max C.A.,
Howard Ian M.,
Barbosa Ana Carolina,
Feng Song,
Fernandes Katia,
Schöngart Jochen
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
geophysical research letters
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.007
H-Index - 273
eISSN - 1944-8007
pISSN - 0094-8276
DOI - 10.1029/2020gl087478
Subject(s) - amazon rainforest , precipitation , atlantic multidecadal oscillation , amazonian , climatology , streamflow , dendroclimatology , tropical atlantic , environmental science , chronology , sea surface temperature , geology , geography , drainage basin , ecology , meteorology , biology , paleontology , cartography
Instrumental observations indicate that Amazon precipitation and streamflow extremes have increased during the last 40 years, possibly due to anthropogenic changes and natural variability. How unprecedented these changes might be is difficult to determine because some paleoclimatic, instrumental, and climate model simulations suggest that Amazonian precipitation and streamflow may be subject to multidecadal variability with return intervals longer than most direct observations. A new 258‐ year long tree‐ring chronology of Cedrela odorata has been developed in the eastern Amazon and has been used to reconstruct wet season precipitation totals from 1759–2016. Reconstructed drought extremes are associated with significant sea surface temperature anomalies over the tropical Pacific and Atlantic Oceans. Strong multidecadal variance is identified in the reconstruction that may reflect a component of natural rainfall variability relevant to forest ecosystem dynamics and suggesting that recent hydroclimate changes over the eastern Amazon may not be unprecedented over the past 258 years.