Drought increased since the mid-20th century in the northern South American Altiplano revealed by a 389-year precipitation record

In this study, we develop the first tree-ring based precipitation reconstruction for the northern South American Altiplano back to 1625 CE. We established the significance of our reconstruction by using it to determine that the occurrence rate of extreme dry events together with a shift in mean dry conditions for the late 20th-beginning 21st century is unprecedented in the past 389 years. Our reconstruction provides also valuable information about the ENSO influences in the local precipitation.