Climate as a contributing factor in the demise of Angkor, Cambodia.
The "hydraulic city" of Angkor, the capitol of the Khmer Empire in Cambodia, experienced decades-long drought interspersed with intense monsoons in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries that, in combination with other factors, contributed to its eventual demise. The climatic evidence comes from a seven-and-a-half century robust hydroclimate reconstruction from tropical southern Vietnamese tree rings. The Angkor droughts were of a duration and severity that would have impacted the sprawling city's water supply and agricultural productivity, while high-magnitude monsoon years damaged its water control infrastructure. Hydroclimate variability for this region is strongly and inversely correlated with tropical Pacific sea surface temperature, indicating that a warm Pacific and El Niño events induce drought at interannual and interdecadal time scales, and that low-frequency variations of tropical Pacific climate can exert significant influence over Southeast Asian climate and society.
Buckley
Brendan M
BM
Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory of Columbia University, Palisades, NY 10964, USA. bmb@ldeo.columbia.edu
Anchukaitis
Kevin J
KJ
Penny
Daniel
D
Fletcher
Roland
R
Cook
Edward R
ER
Sano
Masaki
M
Nam
Le Canh
le C
Wichienkeeo
Aroonrut
A
Minh
Ton That
TT
Hong
Truong Mai
TM
D000383:Agriculture; D002160:Cambodia; D002980:Climate; D055864:Droughts; D017753:Ecosystem; D005843:Geography; D019015:Geologic Sediments; D013696:Temperature; D013997:Time Factors; D014197:Trees / Q000502:physiology*; D014329:Tropical Climate; D014744:Vietnam; D014881:Water Supply