Physical and Environmental Geography Commons^™

Southern Annular Mode Drives Multicentury Wildfire Activity In Southern South America, Andrés Holz, Juan Paritsis, Ignacio A. Mundo, Thomas T. Veblen, Thomas Kitzberger, Grant J. Williamson, Ezequiel Aráoz, Carlos Bustos-Schindler, Mauro E. González, H. Ricardo Grau, Juan M. Quezada

Geography Faculty Publications and Presentations

The Southern Annular Mode (SAM) is the main driver of climate variability at mid to high latitudes in the Southern Hemisphere, affecting wildfire activity, which in turn pollutes the air and contributes to human health problems and mortality, and potentially provides strong feedback to the climate system through emissions and land cover changes. Here we report the largest Southern Hemisphere network of annually resolved tree ring fire histories, consisting of 1,767 fire-scarred trees from 97 sites (from 22 °S to 54 °S) in southern South America (SAS), to quantify the coupling of SAM and regional wildfire variability using recently created …