Globally coherent water cycle response to temperature change during the past two millennia

New paper by Konecky B et al. in Nature Geoscience.

Reconstructions of global hydroclimate during the Common Era (CE; approximately the past 2000 years) are important for providing context for current and future global environmental change. However, research of the past 2,000 years of the water cycle is complex.

Konecky B et al. decided to start with water isotope records because "they reflect holistic signals and because they’re recorded in all kinds of different natural archives."

Using proxies for δ_precip (precipitation), δ_MW (precipitation-derived meteoric waters such as lake and soil water) and δ_SW (seawater) published in the Iso2k database, which contains "759 globally distributed palaeoclimate records from coral, tree, ice, speleothem, lake and marine sites", the authors found coherent changes in the water cycle as the planet cooled then warmed. 

> Access the article
> Access more information on the iso2k database design 
> Read write up and interview with Bronwen Konecky 

Iso2k is a community-based effort within the next phase of the PAGES 2k Network, investigating decadal to centennial-scale variability, as well as possible secular trends, in hydroclimate over the past 2,000 years.