The candidate will extract samples from living and relict juniper (Juniperus thurifera) trees in central Spain. Wood from this drought sensitive species will be compiled into multi-centennial long composite chronologies, which will extend the relatively short instrumental measurements in central Spain back in time. The new hydroclimatic reconstruction will be compared to evidence from historical sources. Detection of the putative influences of volcanic eruptions on the various precipitation regimes over the Iberian Peninsula will be crucial. Assessment of the return frequency and intensity of past droughts and pluvials will be linked with mode shifts of the North Atlantic Oscillation. A greater palaeoclimatic perspective will provide a natural envelope for placing the anthropogenically-induced recent drying trend into a long-term context. Consideration of temperature reconstructions from the same region in the western Mediterranean basin will further enable the analysis of possible co-variability between temperature and hydroclimate, and that relationship’s temporal stability.