The objective of this work was to verify possible associations between the interdecadal variability of minimum (Tmin) and maximum (Tmax) daily air temperatures and daily thermal range (DTR) in Santa Maria, RS, Brazil, with the Pacific Decadal Oscillation (PDO). Daily Tmin and Tmax values, from January 1912 to December 2009, and the monthly values of the PDO index during the same period were used. There is association between the interdecadal variability of Tmin, Tmax, and DTR with the PDO in this location. There was a decrease in Tmin and Tmax, during the 1947-1976 cold phase of the PDO. In the two PDO's warm phases, 1925-1946 and 1977-1998, there was an increase in Tmin during the first period and in Tmax during the second period. There was a reduction in DTR during the 1947-1976 cold phase of the PDO, due to a reduction of average Tmax and maximum Tmax. There was an increase in DTR in the first semester during the current (1999-2009) cold phase of the PDO, due to a decrease in average Tmin. These warming and cooling cycles, on the decadal time scale, may help in defining adaptation and mitigating strategies in agriculture through plant breeding and the development of cultivars tolerant to such temperature oscillations.
adaptation; agriculture; climate; mitigation; low frequency oscillation
