Abstract
In this study, we aim to examine past dry and wet events for the western Anatolia, performing local and spatial reconstructions. 17 new black pine site chronologies were developed, May-June precipitation time series were reconstructed for four localities, and the first spatial May-June precipitation reconstruction was achieved for western Anatolia. The long-term local May-June precipitation reconstructions contain mostly one-year and, less commonly, two-year drought events. The longest consecutive dry period (AD 1925-1928) in the reconstructed time series for Kütahya lasted four years. Spatial reconstructions revealed that between AD 1786 and 1930 the extreme dry years for all of western Anatolia were AD 1887, 1893, 1794 and 1740. The driest year during the 215-year-long period under consideration was 1887. The wettest years for the entire western Anatolia were determined to be AD 1835, 1876, 1881 and 1901. There is a big overlap between agricultural famine years and dry years as determined from reconstructions. In this context, our study provides a basis for understanding agricultural drought and better management of regional water resources.
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 438-450 |
Number of pages | 13 |
Journal | Quaternary Research |
Volume | 75 |
Issue number | 3 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - May 2011 |
Funding
This study was supported by The Scientific and Technical Research Council of Turkey (TUBITAK) ; Projects YDABAG 102Y063 and TOGTAG 3316 . We are grateful to the Forest Service personnel for their invaluable support during our field studies in western Anatolia. Tree-ring data from some sites were obtained from the NOAA Paleoclimatology International Tree-Ring Data Bank. We thank Hüseyin Yurtseven and Cengiz Cihan for their valuable assistance in the field. We also thank Tuncay Güner and Ali Kaya for their help in the laboratory.
Funders | Funder number |
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TUBITAK | YDABAG 102Y063, TOGTAG 3316 |
Türkiye Bilimsel ve Teknolojik Araştirma Kurumu |
Keywords
- Dendroclimatology
- May-June precipitation
- Spatial reconstruction
- Tree rings
- Turkey
- Western Anatolia