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Historic Hydroclimatic Variability in Northern Mexico

Informally Refereed

Abstract

The understanding of historic hydroclimatic variability is basic to plan for a proper management of limited water resources in northern Mexico. The objective of this study was to develop a network of tree-ring chronologies for climate reconstruction and to analyze the influence of circulatory patterns, such as ENSO. Climatic sensitive treering chronologies were developed in mountain ranges of the Sierras Madre Oriental and Occidental. A grid of new Douglas-fir chronologies were developed and winter-spring precipitation reconstructions were produced for northwest Chihuahua, northwestern Durango, southern Nuevo Leon, and southeastern Coahuila. The seasonal winter-spring precipitation reconstructions extended 530 years (1472--2002) for Chihuahua, 228 year (1765--1993) for Durango, 602 years (1400--2002) for Nuevo Leon, and 342 years (1659--2001) for Coahuila. Some of the low frequency events were specific for each reconstruction, but low frequency events (decadal resolution) were present in most of the reconstructions; specific cases are the droughts of the 1810s, 1860s, 1870s, and 1950s, and the wet periods of the 1820s, 1830s, and 1890s.Trends in dry or wet periods were disrupted by above or below normal precipitation affected by the ENSO phenomena, especially in the winter--spring period when this circulatory pattern produced in times abundant rains in northern Mexico. However, the ENSO influence on Winter-Spring precipitation varied with time. Convective rains and precipitation from cyclones formed in the Gulf of Mexico may explain some of the hydrological variability detected in the southern Nuevo Leon and the southwestern Coahuila precipitation reconstructions. However, these preliminary results indicates that winter-spring hydroclimate variability in northern Mexico is influenced by a range of circulatory patterns, and a greater grid of tree-ring chronologies should be developed to explain in detail the involved climatic factors as well as to reconstruct Summer precipitation, that makes up more than 70 percent of the total annual precipitation.

Parent Publication

Keywords

monitoring, assessment, sustainability, Western Hemisphere, sustainable management, ecosystem resources, hydroclimatic variability, Northern Mexico

Citation

Villanueva-Diaz, José; Cerano-Paredes, J.; Stahle, D.W.; Luckman, B. H.; Therrell, M.D.; Cleaveland, M.K.; Gutierrez-Garcia, G. 2006. Historic Hydroclimatic Variability in Northern Mexico. In: Aguirre-Bravo, C.; Pellicane, Patrick J.; Burns, Denver P.; and Draggan, Sidney, Eds. 2006. Monitoring Science and Technology Symposium: Unifying Knowledge for Sustainability in the Western Hemisphere Proceedings RMRS-P-42CD. Fort Collins, CO: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Research Station. p. 354-364
https://www.fs.usda.gov/research/treesearch/26431