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Reconstructed streamflow for Citarum River, Java, Indonesia: linkages to tropical climate dynamics

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Abstract

The Citarum river basin of western Java, Indonesia, which supplies water to 10 million residents in Jakarta, has become increasingly vulnerable to anthropogenic change. Citarum’s streamflow record, only ~45 years in length (1963-present), is too short for understanding the full range of hydrometeorological variability in this important region. Here we present a tree-ring based reconstruction of September–November Citarum streamflow (AD 1759–2006), one of the first such records available for monsoon Asia. Close coupling is observed between decreased tree growth and low streamflow levels, which in turn are associated with drought caused by ENSO warm events in the tropical Pacific and Indian Ocean positive dipole-type variability. Over the full length of record, reconstructed variance was at its weakest during the interval from ~1905–1960, overlapping with a period of unusually-low variability (1920–1960) in the ENSO-Indian Ocean dipole systems. In subsequent decades, increased variance in both the streamflow anomalies and a coral-based SST reconstruction of the Indian Ocean Dipole Mode signal the potential for intensified drought activity and related consequences for water supply and crop productivity in western Java, where much of the country’s rice is grown.

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Acknowledgments

This project was funded by the National Science Foundation’s Paleoclimate program, Grant No. OCE 04-02474. We thank Dr. Rizaldi Boer of Bogor National University, Java Indonesia, for providing the streamflow data. We very much appreciate the comments of the reviewers, which have significantly improved the manuscript. LDEO Contribution Number 7312.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Tree-Ring Laboratory, Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, Palisades, NY, 10964, USA

    Rosanne D’Arrigo

  2. Research School of Earth Sciences, The Australian National University, Canberra, CT, 0200, Australia

    Nerilie Abram

  3. British Antarctic Survey, Natural Environment Research Council, Cambridge, CB3 OET, UK

    Nerilie Abram

  4. University of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW, 2052, Australia

    Caroline Ummenhofer

  5. Gondwana Tree-Ring Laboratory, Canterbury, New Zealand

    Jonathan Palmer

  6. Climate Risk Analysis, Schneiderberg 26, 30167, Hannover, Germany

    Manfred Mudelsee

Authors
  1. Rosanne D’Arrigo
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  2. Nerilie Abram
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  3. Caroline Ummenhofer
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  4. Jonathan Palmer
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  5. Manfred Mudelsee
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Correspondence to Rosanne D’Arrigo.

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D’Arrigo, R., Abram, N., Ummenhofer, C. et al. Reconstructed streamflow for Citarum River, Java, Indonesia: linkages to tropical climate dynamics. Clim Dyn 36, 451–462 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00382-009-0717-2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00382-009-0717-2

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