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Patrick Erger

Abstract (from ScienceDirect): Paleohydrologic records can provide unique, long-term perspectives on streamflow variability and hydroclimate for use in water resource planning. Such long-term records can also play a key role in placing both present day events and projected future conditions into a broader context than that offered by instrumental observations. However, relative to other major river basins across the western United States, a paucity of streamflow reconstructions has to date prevented the full application of such paleohydrologic information in the Upper Missouri River Basin. Here we utilize a set of naturalized streamflow records for the Upper Missouri and an expanded network of tree-ring records...
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Paleohydrologic records provide a valuable perspective on the variability of streamflow and hydroclimate that is critical for water resource planning and placing present day and future conditions into a long-term context. Until now, key insights gained from streamflow reconstructions in the other river basins across the Western U.S. been lacking in the Upper Missouri River Basin due to a lack of extended streamflow records. Here we utilize a new database of naturalized streamflow records for the Upper Missouri and an expanded network of tree-ring records from the region to reconstruct streamflow at 31 gaging locations across the major Mountain Headwaters of the United States’ largest river basin. The database also...
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Characterizing Historic Streamflow to Support Drought Planning in the Upper Missouri River Basin
The Missouri River system is the life-blood of the American Midwest, providing critical water resources that drive the region’s agriculture, industry, hydroelectric power generation, and ecosystems. The basin has a long history of development and diversion of water resources, meaning that streamflow records that reflect natural, unmanaged flows over the past century have been rare. As a result, research on the complex interactions between temperature and precipitation in driving droughts and surface water variability in the Missouri River Basin has lagged behind similar work done in other major basins in the country, and has hindered drought planning efforts. To address this need, researchers will use tree-rings...
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