Heavily-litigated Rivers and Streamflow Change in the SE United States

Keywords: dendrochronology; southeast streamflow; reconstruction
Abstract Type: Poster Abstract

Abstract

To meet their municipal and agricultural water needs during the dry summer months, the Southeastern United States relies on adequate streamflow. Many of these rivers cross-state boundaries, and thus have become the subject of interstate legal battles in recent years. An important component of these legal decisions is the use of historical streamflow measurements. With tree ring measurements, multiple studies have extended these records hundreds of years before the instrumental record, allowing water managers to make better-informed decisions. Although tree rings have been successfully used to reconstruct discharge in individual basins, there is lacking any regional investigation into the discharge patterns of these heavily-litigated rivers. To address this gap, we use a point-by-point reconstruction method to reconstruct river discharge in 11 watershed subregions in the South Atlantic-Gulf Region. We then use principal components analysis on our 11 reconstructions to identify spatial patterns in streamflow across the SE. We explore the relationship of these patterns to regional climate features like the Bermuda High to better understand sub-regional character of drought in this part of the country.