Abstract ATM-9632040 Fritz, S.C. LeHigh University Title: Sub-Decadal Reconstruction of Drought Patterns in North American's Arid Interior: the last 2000 years Recent paleoclimatic studies from several regions of western North America suggest that the climate of the last century may not be representative of long-term patterns of climate variability. Paleolimnological work from southeastern North Dakota suggests that intervals of severe multi-decadal drought have been common during the last two millennia. This award supports a study to reconstruct at sub-decadal intervals the frequency, duration, and magnitude of major drought in the northern Great Plains of North America and to examine how these moisture patterns are manifest in vegetation, hydrology, and geomorphic processes. Reconstructions will be based on analysis of Kettle Lake in northwestern North Dakota, which has laminated, probably varved sediments. This site has the potential to provide an absolute chronology of drought in the north-central grasslands of North America that can be linked to records elsewhere to reconstruct broader scale atmospheric circulation patterns in the past. The project is part of the PEP-1 transect for western North America and is essential for characterization of the east to west structure of the climate system.
