Journal article
Preliminary December-January inflow and streamflow reconstructions from tree rings for western Tasmania, southeastern Australia
KJ Allen, SC Nichols, R Evans, ER Cook, S Allie, G Carson, F Ling, PJ Baker
Water Resources Research | Published : 2015
DOI: 10.1002/2015WR017062
Abstract
Projected decreases and changes in the seasonal distribution of precipitation will have profound impacts on southeastern Australia, including its ability to generate renewable hydroelectricity. Recent decreases in precipitation over the region may be significant in the context of instrumental records, but the question of whether these decreases are within long-term natural variability remains. To help address this issue, we present December-January streamflow and dam inflow reconstructions for southeastern Australia. These reconstructions for the Tasmanian west coast are based solely on local tree ring chronologies and span up to 1600 years. Nonparametric estimates, however, indicate good mo..
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Grants
Awarded by Australian Research Council
Funding Acknowledgements
Streamflow and Inflow data are available from Hydro Tasmania and the Department of Primary Industries Parks Water and Environment. Tree ring data will become available via the International Tree-Ring Data Bank (http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/dataaccess/paleoclimatology-data/datasets/tree-ring) upon completion of our current project funded by the Australian Research Council and Hydro Tasmania and within 12 months of publication of this paper. The Lagarostrobos franklinii wood properties chronologies used in this paper have been contributed to the ITRDB. The reconstructions can be obtained from the corresponding author. We wish to thank Hydro Tasmania and the Department of Primary Industries Parks Water and Environment for provision of the streamflow and inflow data. Mark Willis, Hydro Tasmania, provided descriptive information about catchments. Samples for this study were obtained under permits issued by Forestry Tasmania and Parks and Wildlife Tasmania. Paul Fox-Hughes from the Bureau of Meteorology provided access to information about past hydrological conditions in Tasmania. Ricardo Villalba provided the Villalba et al. [2012] SAM reconstruction, Wasyl Drosdowsky provided the STRI, and Martin Visbeck provided the Visbeck SAM index. Greg Lee assisted with production of Figure 1. K.A. and S.N. were supported by an Australian Research Council Linkage Project (LP12020811) cofunded by Hydro Tasmania. P.J.B. was supported by an Australian Research Council Future Fellowship (FT120100751). This paper is also Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory contribution 7913. We are thankful for the constructive and thoughtful suggestions of three reviewers that have improved this paper.