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Drought in the Great Lakes Basin

Collaborators: Robert Booth, John Kutzbach

Funding:

Publications:
Booth, R. K., M. Notaro, S. T. Jackson, and J. E. Kutzbach, 2006: Widespread drought episodes in the western
Great Lakes region during the past 2000 years: Geographic extent and potential mechanisms. Earth and Planetary
Science Letters, 242, 415-427.

Methods: High-resolution reconstructions of peatland water-table depths at two raise bogs in the western Great Lakes Basin, separated by 1000-km, are compared to study drought history. Widespread mega-drought occurrence is related to global sea-surface temperature patterns.

Key finding: Bog-inferred records of moisture variability in the 2 regions is strongly correlated. Widespread droughts during 1000-700 BP across the western Great Lakes Basin seem to have been related to a warm North Atlantic and mid-latitude North Pacific and cold tropical Pacific.

Sea-surface temperature (SST) anomalies in both the North Pacific and North Atlantic are found to significantly affect US drought, as evident using Palmer Drought Severity Index (PDSI)