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Subscriber Access to Full Article (Nonsubscribers may purchase for $9.00, Includes print PDF, file size: 2026684 bytes)
WATER RESOURCES RESEARCH,
VOL. 42,
W05415,
doi:10.1029/2005WR004455,
2006
Updated streamflow reconstructions for the Upper Colorado River Basin
Connie A. Woodhouse
National Climatic Data Center, NOAA, Boulder, Colorado, USA
Stephen T. Gray
Desert Laboratory, U.S. Geological Survey, Tucson, Arizona, USA
David M. Meko
Laboratory of Tree-Ring Research, University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona, USA
Abstract
Updated proxy reconstructions of water year (October–September) streamflow for four key gauges in the Upper Colorado River
Basin were generated using an expanded tree ring network and longer calibration records than in previous efforts. Reconstructed
gauges include the Green River at Green River, Utah; Colorado near Cisco, Utah; San Juan near Bluff, Utah; and Colorado at
Lees Ferry, Arizona. The reconstructions explain 72–81% of the variance in the gauge records, and results are robust across
several reconstruction approaches. Time series plots as well as results of cross-spectral analysis indicate strong spatial
coherence in runoff variations across the subbasins. The Lees Ferry reconstruction suggests a higher long-term mean than previous
reconstructions but strongly supports earlier findings that Colorado River allocations were based on one of the wettest periods
in the past 5 centuries and that droughts more severe than any 20th to 21st century event occurred in the past.
Received 21
July
2005;
accepted 19
January
2006;
published 11
May
2006.
Keywords: dendrochronology;
paleoclimatology;
streamflow.
Index Terms: 1860 Hydrology: Streamflow; 4920 Paleoceanography: Dendrochronology; 1812 Hydrology: Drought; 3344 Atmospheric Processes: Paleoclimatology (0473, 4900).
Subscriber Access to Full Article (Nonsubscribers may purchase for $9.00, Includes print PDF, file size: 2026684 bytes)
Citation: Woodhouse, C. A., S. T. Gray, and D. M. Meko
(2006),
Updated streamflow reconstructions for the Upper Colorado River Basin,
Water Resour. Res.,
42,
W05415,
doi:10.1029/2005WR004455.
Copyright 2006 by the American Geophysical Union.
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