657-Year Drought Reconstruction From Andean Tree Rings

A 657-year reconstruction of the Palmer Drought Severity Index (PDSI) for the temperate-Mediterranean transition zone of the Andes. The dataset, created by NOAA's National Centers for Environmental Information, provides annual climate proxy data derived from tree rings in Chile. It was published in 2002.

Use Cases

• Analyze long-term PDSI trends and variability in the Andes region over 657 years.
• Correlate reconstructed drought indices with known historical climate events using the annual time series.
• Validate regional climate model simulations against a high-resolution proxy record of moisture balance.
• Study the frequency and severity of pre-industrial droughts in South America's temperate-Mediterranean zone.

Strengths

• Covers a long 657-year time period from 604 to -52 calendar years BP.
• Provides a specific climate reconstruction parameter (PDSI) for a defined geographic region.

Limitations

• Data is temporally stale, last updated in 2002 and may not reflect newer methodologies.
• Geographic scope is limited to a specific transition zone in Chile, not the entire Andes.
• Unknown sample size and underlying tree-ring chronology details limit reproducibility assessments.

Provenance

Source

NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI) World Data Service for Paleoclimatology.

Collection Method

Climate reconstruction derived from tree-ring parameters.

Time Range

604 to -52 calendar years before present (BP).

Freshness

2002-01-01

Geography

Chile, specifically the Andes temperate-Mediterranean transition zone.