Connie Woodhouse

Associate Professor, School of Geography and Development

Ph.D., 1996, Geosciences, University of Arizona
M.S., 1989, Geography, University of Utah
B.A., 1979, Environmental Education, Prescott College

Phone: (520) 626-0235
FAX: (520) 621-2889
E-mail: conniew1@email.arizona.edu

412 Harvill Building, Box #2
Tucson, AZ 85721-0076
USA

Personal Webpage

Research

The primary focus of my research concerns the climatology of western North America, including paleoclimatic reconstructions of past climate and hydrologic conditions from tree rings, the analysis of past and current climate, and circulation features that influence climate, particularly at decadal and longer time scales. My research has ranged from the reconstruction and analysis of drought in the western Great Plain, to temperature variability over the past eight centuries in western North America, to the development of a network of streamflow reconstructions for major rivers in the Colorado, Platte, and Rio Grande River basins. While some of my work is basic research, a recent emphasis has been on applied research to assist water resource managers in using reconstructions of past hydroclimatic variability in drought planning and water resource management. Through this work, I have become intrigued by the host of water issues that faces the US West, and other arid areas, today. My collaborators include scientists at the Regional Integrated Sciences and Assessment (RISA) programs at the Universities of Colorado (Western Water Assessment) and Arizona (Climate Assessment for the Southwest), personnel at the National Climatic Data Center, Paleoclimatology Branch, and the USGS Earth Surface Processes group.

Project Involvement

• Tree-ring based hydroclimatic reconstructions for resource management in the Colorado River basin
• Extended dendrochronological records from remnant materials for calibrating lake sediments records and tracking changes in tree line in the central Rocky Mountains
• Fire history database and tool development
• Woodland expansion into the western Great Plains
• Summer temperatures reconstructed from tree rings in the central Rocky Mountains