What is it about?
The SADA is an annually-resolved hydroclimate atlas in South America that spans the continent south of 12°S from 1400 to 2000 CE. Based on 286 tree ring records and instrumentally based estimates of soil moisture, the SADA complements six drought atlases world wide filling a geographical gap in the Southern Hemisphere.
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Why is it important?
This study addresses a critical gap in our understanding of the recent hydroclimatic changes in South America by recreating 600 years of South American hydroclimate variability. We noted that widespread droughts and extreme rainfall events have become more frequent over the last 60 years on the continent. Our research offers the unique possibility of putting these recent unprecedented hydrologic extremes in a 600 years context.
Perspectives
Our study allows for recent unprecedented hydroclimatic extremes to put in a much longer context, and make the case that continued dry/wet extremes are likely to increase under future global change scenarios. Both, water deficit and excess threaten societies in different regions of South America. Therefore, in order to address the environmental problems in the face of future water stress, it is necessary to advance in legislation, monitoring and management regulations that enable an efficient use of hydrological resources and guarantee a proportion of water in each region for the functioning of ecosystems and access to clean water for the local population. For many regions in South America, it is necessary to have a permanent monitoring of water resources in order to estimate the quantity, quality, seasonality, and demand of existing water and to be able to develop projections on the supply and demand of hydrological resources.
Mariano Morales
Instituto Argentino de Nivología Glaciología y Cs. Ambientales (IANIGLA); Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas (CONICET)
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Six hundred years of South American tree rings reveal an increase in severe hydroclimatic events since mid-20th century, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, July 2020, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences,
DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2002411117.
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