TY - JOUR
T1 - Dendrohydrology and water resources management in south-central Chile
T2 - Lessons from the Río Imperial streamflow reconstruction
AU - Fernández, Alfonso
AU - Muñoz, Ariel
AU - González-Reyes, Álvaro
AU - Aguilera-Betti, Isabella
AU - Toledo, Isadora
AU - Puchi, Paulina
AU - Sauchyn, David
AU - Crespo, Sebastián
AU - Frene, Cristian
AU - Mundo, Ignacio
AU - González, Mauro
AU - Vignola, Raffaele
N1 - Funding Information:
Acknowledgements. We first want to acknowledge the reviewers for their thorough assessment of our paper; we believe their comments have contributed to a better work. Support for the researchers involved in this work was provided by the following sources: (a) Chilean Research Council (FONDECYT 11161061, 11160454, 1171065, and 1171400), the Center for Climate and Resilience Research (CR)2 (FONDAP 15110009); (b) Proyectos Internos Pontificia Universidad Católica de Valparaíso (039.353/2016 and 039.329/2016); (c) Vicerrectoría de Investigación Universidad de Concepción (DIUC 208.603.009-1.0); (d) Programa de Mitigación de Riesgos, Ministerio del Interior y Seguridad Pública “Proyecto de manejo integrado de cuencas abastecedoras de agua en la Provincia de Malleco”; and (e) the project “Ecosystem-based strategies and innovations in water governance networks for adaptation to climate change in Latin American Landscapes” (EcoAdapt) funded by the European Commission under FP7 contract ENV.2011.4.2.3-1/283163. Special gratitude is extended to the Chilean Forest Service (Corporación Nacional Forestal: CONAF) for helping with fieldwork and giving us the support to develop dendrochronological research in Araucaria ecosystems. We also acknowledge Nick Crane for his help in an earlier version of this paper.
Publisher Copyright:
© Author(s) 2018.
PY - 2018/5/17
Y1 - 2018/5/17
N2 - Streamflow in south-central Chile (SCC, ĝ1/4 ĝ€37-42°ĝ€S) is vital for agriculture, forestry production, hydroelectricity, and human consumption. Recent drought episodes have generated hydrological deficits with damaging effects on these activities. This region is projected to undergo major reductions in water availability, concomitant with projected increases in water demand. However, the lack of long-term records hampers the development of accurate estimations of natural variability and trends. In order to provide more information on long-term streamflow variability and trends in SCC, here we report findings of an analysis of instrumental records and a tree-ring reconstruction of the summer streamflow of the Río Imperial ( ĝ1/4 ĝ€37°ĝ€40′ĝ€S-38°ĝ€50′ĝ€S). This is the first reconstruction in Chile targeted at this season. Results from the instrumental streamflow record ( ĝ1/4 ĝ€1940 onwards) indicated that the hydrological regime is fundamentally pluvial with a small snowmelt contribution during spring, and evidenced a decreasing trend, both for the summer and the full annual record. The reconstruction showed that streamflow below the average characterized the post-1980 period, with more frequent, but not more intense, drought episodes. We additionally found that the recent positive phase of the Southern Annular Mode has significantly influenced streamflow. These findings agree with previous studies, suggesting a robust regional signal and a shift to a new hydrological scenario. In this paper, we also discuss implications of these results for water managers and stakeholders; we provide rationale and examples that support the need for the incorporation of tree-ring reconstructions into water resources management.
AB - Streamflow in south-central Chile (SCC, ĝ1/4 ĝ€37-42°ĝ€S) is vital for agriculture, forestry production, hydroelectricity, and human consumption. Recent drought episodes have generated hydrological deficits with damaging effects on these activities. This region is projected to undergo major reductions in water availability, concomitant with projected increases in water demand. However, the lack of long-term records hampers the development of accurate estimations of natural variability and trends. In order to provide more information on long-term streamflow variability and trends in SCC, here we report findings of an analysis of instrumental records and a tree-ring reconstruction of the summer streamflow of the Río Imperial ( ĝ1/4 ĝ€37°ĝ€40′ĝ€S-38°ĝ€50′ĝ€S). This is the first reconstruction in Chile targeted at this season. Results from the instrumental streamflow record ( ĝ1/4 ĝ€1940 onwards) indicated that the hydrological regime is fundamentally pluvial with a small snowmelt contribution during spring, and evidenced a decreasing trend, both for the summer and the full annual record. The reconstruction showed that streamflow below the average characterized the post-1980 period, with more frequent, but not more intense, drought episodes. We additionally found that the recent positive phase of the Southern Annular Mode has significantly influenced streamflow. These findings agree with previous studies, suggesting a robust regional signal and a shift to a new hydrological scenario. In this paper, we also discuss implications of these results for water managers and stakeholders; we provide rationale and examples that support the need for the incorporation of tree-ring reconstructions into water resources management.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85047238499&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.5194/hess-22-2921-2018
DO - 10.5194/hess-22-2921-2018
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85047238499
VL - 22
SP - 2921
EP - 2935
JO - Hydrology and Earth System Sciences
JF - Hydrology and Earth System Sciences
SN - 1027-5606
IS - 5
ER -