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Annual and Growing Season Temperature Changes in the San Luis Valley, Colorado

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Abstract

Most montane and alpine ecosystem climate change studies have focused on changes in biota; few report temperature changes from several stations. This study reports temperature changes in the San Luis Valley (SLV) based on climate station data from a 113-year period. The SLV is a high sub-alpine desert, and the local community relies heavily upon the local irrigated agriculture for its livelihood. Because of the importance of agriculture to the local community and the effects climate change may have on agriculture, this study investigates differences in annual and growing season temperatures. Data from seven climate stations on the floor of the SLV were obtained from the National Climate Data Center, adjusted for inhomogeneities and reconstructed—where necessary—from 1895 to 2008. Change point analysis was employed to identify distinct periods of different mean temperatures values. Change point analysis identified 1993–1994 as the change point in mean annual temperature. Maximum, minimum, and mean annual temperature for each period, 1895–1993 and 1994–2008, were then compared using a one-tailed General Linear Model to determine the presence of significant increases in mean temperature values, which indicated an approximate increase in annual mean temperature of 1°C and growing season temperature increase of 0.65°C, after 1993. The temperature changes reported here do not correspond to the events related to PDO, ENSO, or NAO. No local land use changes could be attributed to the temperature increases or the latent response to global changes, either. Therefore, since the temperature change occurred 15–20 years after the typically reported 1976 beginning of increases in global mean temperature, we conclude the changes to be an artifact of the local topography and result from global temperature change, similar to the few other high-elevation temperature studies.

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  1. Department of Biology, Texas State University, 601 University Drive, San Marcos, TX, 78666, USA

    Ken Mix, Vicente L. Lopes & Walter Rast

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  1. Ken Mix
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  2. Vicente L. Lopes
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Correspondence to Ken Mix.

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Mix, K., Lopes, V.L. & Rast, W. Annual and Growing Season Temperature Changes in the San Luis Valley, Colorado. Water Air Soil Pollut 220, 189–203 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11270-011-0746-4

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