An ice core derived 1013-year catchment-scale annual rainfall reconstruction in subtropical eastern Australia
Paleoclimate research indicates that the Australian instrumental climate record (∼ 100 years) does not cover the full range of hydroclimatic variability that is possible. To better understand the implications of this on catchment-scale water resources management, a 1013-year (1000–2012 common era (C...
| Main Authors: | , , , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Copernicus Publications
2016-05-01
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| Series: | Hydrology and Earth System Sciences |
| Online Access: | http://www.hydrol-earth-syst-sci.net/20/1703/2016/hess-20-1703-2016.pdf |
| _version_ | 1828760887856463872 |
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| author | C. R. Tozer T. R. Vance J. L. Roberts A. S. Kiem M. A. J. Curran A. D. Moy |
| author_facet | C. R. Tozer T. R. Vance J. L. Roberts A. S. Kiem M. A. J. Curran A. D. Moy |
| author_sort | C. R. Tozer |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Paleoclimate research indicates that the Australian instrumental climate
record (∼ 100 years) does not cover the full range of hydroclimatic
variability that is possible. To better understand the implications of this
on catchment-scale water resources management, a 1013-year
(1000–2012 common era (CE)) annual rainfall reconstruction was produced for
the Williams River catchment in coastal eastern Australia. No high-resolution
paleoclimate proxies are located in the region and so a teleconnection
between summer sea salt deposition recorded in ice cores from East Antarctica
and rainfall variability in eastern Australia was exploited to reconstruct
the catchment-scale rainfall record. The reconstruction shows that
significantly longer and more frequent wet and dry periods were experienced
in the preinstrumental compared to the instrumental period. This suggests
that existing drought and flood risk assessments underestimate the true risks
due to the reliance on data and statistics obtained from only the
instrumental record. This raises questions about the robustness of existing
water security and flood protection measures and has serious implications for
water resources management, infrastructure design and catchment planning. The
method used in this proof of concept study is transferable and enables
similar insights into the true risk of flood/drought to be gained for other
paleoclimate proxy poor regions for which suitable remote teleconnected
proxies exist. This will lead to improved understanding and ability to deal
with the impacts of multi-decadal to centennial hydroclimatic variability. |
| first_indexed | 2024-12-11T01:21:23Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-f16e2d0626604cdb8e7dd42e457f9ad4 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1027-5606 1607-7938 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-12-11T01:21:23Z |
| publishDate | 2016-05-01 |
| publisher | Copernicus Publications |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Hydrology and Earth System Sciences |
| spelling | doaj.art-f16e2d0626604cdb8e7dd42e457f9ad42022-12-22T01:25:42ZengCopernicus PublicationsHydrology and Earth System Sciences1027-56061607-79382016-05-012051703171710.5194/hess-20-1703-2016An ice core derived 1013-year catchment-scale annual rainfall reconstruction in subtropical eastern AustraliaC. R. Tozer0T. R. Vance1J. L. Roberts2A. S. Kiem3M. A. J. Curran4A. D. Moy5Antarctic Climate & Ecosystems Cooperative Research Centre, University of Tasmania, Hobart, Tasmania 7001, AustraliaAntarctic Climate & Ecosystems Cooperative Research Centre, University of Tasmania, Hobart, Tasmania 7001, AustraliaAustralian Antarctic Division, Kingston, Tasmania 7050, AustraliaCentre for Water, Climate and Land Use, University of Newcastle, Callaghan, NSW 2308, AustraliaAustralian Antarctic Division, Kingston, Tasmania 7050, AustraliaAustralian Antarctic Division, Kingston, Tasmania 7050, AustraliaPaleoclimate research indicates that the Australian instrumental climate record (∼ 100 years) does not cover the full range of hydroclimatic variability that is possible. To better understand the implications of this on catchment-scale water resources management, a 1013-year (1000–2012 common era (CE)) annual rainfall reconstruction was produced for the Williams River catchment in coastal eastern Australia. No high-resolution paleoclimate proxies are located in the region and so a teleconnection between summer sea salt deposition recorded in ice cores from East Antarctica and rainfall variability in eastern Australia was exploited to reconstruct the catchment-scale rainfall record. The reconstruction shows that significantly longer and more frequent wet and dry periods were experienced in the preinstrumental compared to the instrumental period. This suggests that existing drought and flood risk assessments underestimate the true risks due to the reliance on data and statistics obtained from only the instrumental record. This raises questions about the robustness of existing water security and flood protection measures and has serious implications for water resources management, infrastructure design and catchment planning. The method used in this proof of concept study is transferable and enables similar insights into the true risk of flood/drought to be gained for other paleoclimate proxy poor regions for which suitable remote teleconnected proxies exist. This will lead to improved understanding and ability to deal with the impacts of multi-decadal to centennial hydroclimatic variability.http://www.hydrol-earth-syst-sci.net/20/1703/2016/hess-20-1703-2016.pdf |
| spellingShingle | C. R. Tozer T. R. Vance J. L. Roberts A. S. Kiem M. A. J. Curran A. D. Moy An ice core derived 1013-year catchment-scale annual rainfall reconstruction in subtropical eastern Australia Hydrology and Earth System Sciences |
| title | An ice core derived 1013-year catchment-scale annual rainfall reconstruction in subtropical eastern Australia |
| title_full | An ice core derived 1013-year catchment-scale annual rainfall reconstruction in subtropical eastern Australia |
| title_fullStr | An ice core derived 1013-year catchment-scale annual rainfall reconstruction in subtropical eastern Australia |
| title_full_unstemmed | An ice core derived 1013-year catchment-scale annual rainfall reconstruction in subtropical eastern Australia |
| title_short | An ice core derived 1013-year catchment-scale annual rainfall reconstruction in subtropical eastern Australia |
| title_sort | ice core derived 1013 year catchment scale annual rainfall reconstruction in subtropical eastern australia |
| url | http://www.hydrol-earth-syst-sci.net/20/1703/2016/hess-20-1703-2016.pdf |
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