Documenting past and present climate variability is important to obtain a historical baseline for separating externally forced climate change from internal variability. The scarcity of observational climate data provides a challenge for evaluating present-day climate dynamics of the region and its teleconnections to global climate. This session welcomes studies based on observational data, paleoclimate reconstructions, or model simulations over Central and South America, as well as the assessment of climate change impacts on ecosystems and human populations. Increases in the frequency and intensity of extreme events, future projections, changes in duration and spatial extent of the South American Monsoon or the Intertropical Convergence Zone, climate sensitivity of tropical forests, changes in the carbon cycle and glacier mass-balance, El Niño-Southern Oscillation reconstructions and climate impacts related to past volcanic eruptions are some examples of relevant topics. Presentations of new datasets, multidisciplinary methodological advances and novel educational outreach approaches are also welcome.

• A - Atmospheric Sciences
• B - Biogeosciences
• PP - Paleoceanography and Paleoclimatology