title: Climate as a contributing factor in the demise of Angkor, Cambodia.
abstract: 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.
authors.affiliation: Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory of Columbia University, Palisades, NY 10964, USA. bmb@ldeo.columbia.edu
authors.forename: Brendan M
authors.initials: BM
authors.lastname: Buckley
authors.forename: Kevin J
authors.initials: KJ
authors.lastname: Anchukaitis
authors.forename: Daniel
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Penny
authors.forename: Roland
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Fletcher
authors.forename: Edward R
authors.initials: ER
authors.lastname: Cook
authors.forename: Masaki
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Sano
authors.forename: Le Canh
authors.initials: le C
authors.lastname: Nam
authors.forename: Aroonrut
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Wichienkeeo
authors.forename: Ton That
authors.initials: TT
authors.lastname: Minh
authors.forename: Truong Mai
authors.initials: TM
authors.lastname: Hong
mesh_terms: 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