CLIMATE REGIONALIZATION AND TRENDS BASED ON DAILY TEMPERATURE AND PRECIPITATION EXTREMES IN THE SOUTH OF THE PAMPAS (ARGENTINA)

FERRELLI FEDERICO; BRENDEL ANDREA SOLEDAD (COMPARTO LA PRIMERA AUTORÍA); ALIAGA VANINA SOLEDAD; PICCOLO MARIA CINTIA; PERILLO GERARDO MIGUEL EDUARDO

Cuadernos de Investigación Geográfica

Universidad de La Rioja

Año: 2019 vol. 45 p. 396 - 416

0211-6820

EN ESTE TRABAJO COMPARTO LA PRIMERA AUTORIA (VER TRABAJO ADJUNTO)The south of Pampas (36° 32?- 40° 44? S; 63° 24?- 60° 30? W),as most of Argentina, is a semiarid region. Its economy is based on rain-fedagriculture and livestock. Traditionally, the climate has been studied consideringthe analyses of monthly and annual climate parameters, but there is evidence thatin this type of areas, the short-term climatic events have a substantial impact onthe climate. Therefore, this study aimed at developing a climate regionalizationfrom the analysis of daily temperature and precipitation extremes in the south ofthe Pampas for the period 1970-2017. Subsequently, it focuses on analyzing bothtrends and breakpoints of these events in the different sub-climates. To do so, weapplied a Cluster-based Principal Component Analyses with a Ward hierarchicalsupervised method to generate a climate regionalization considering 29 dailyextreme climatic indices and the elevation. We identify four sub-regions, and weanalyzed trends during 1970-2017, and in the two-time series defined by applyingbreakpoints. Both minimum and maximum temperatures and precipitation hadstructural changes in the last 15 years, exposing the region to warming and drynesstrends. The maximum temperature increases 0.5ºC, while precipitation decreases30 mm. The short-term climate variability allows us to identify areas climaticallymore detailed and to conclude that the south of the Pampas is characterized by itshigh dependency on short-term climatic events.