MEGADROUGHT

Next week, we'll discuss one of the main ways that paleoenvironmental data is applied to real-world problems in the field of resource management. I've selected three papers that deal with the subject of 'megadroughts', past droughts that were either more severe or more prolonged than the droughts that occurred during the last century. These studies use different proxies to explore drought history in three separate regions but the underlying message is the same: the modern period does not reflect the full range of variability exhibited by critical aspects of North American hydrology.

Meko et al., Medieval drought in the upper Colorado River basin

Laird et al., Lake sediments record large-scale shifts in moisture regimes across the northern prairies of North America during the past two millennia

Stine, Extreme and persistent drought in California and Patagonia during mediaeval time