Publications

Three monthly coral Sr/Ca records from the Chagos Archipelago covering the period of 1950-1995 AD: reproducibility and implications for quantitative reconstructions of sea surface temperature variatio

In order to assess the fidelity of coral Sr/Ca for quantitative reconstructions of sea surface temperature variations, we have generated three monthly Sr/Ca time series from Porites corals from the lagoon of Peros Banhos (71 degrees E, 5 degrees S, Chagos Archipelago). We find that all three coral Sr/Ca time series are well correlated with instrumental records of sea surface temperature (SST) and air temperature. However, the intrinsic variance of the single-core Sr/Ca time series differs from core to core, limiting their use for quantitative estimates of past temperature variations. Averaging the single-core data improves the correlation with instrumental temperature (r > 0.7) and allows accurate estimates of interannual temperature variations (0.35A degrees C or better). All Sr/Ca time series indicate a shift towards warmer temperatures in the mid-1970s, which coincides with the most recent regime shift in the Pacific Ocean. However, the magnitude of the warming inferred from coral Sr/Ca differs from core to core and ranges from 0.26 to 0.75A degrees C. The composite Sr/Ca record from Peros Banhos clearly captures the major climatic signals in the Indo-Pacific Ocean, i.e. the El NiA +/- o-southern oscillation and the Pacific decadal oscillation. Moreover, composite Sr/Ca is highly correlated with tropical mean temperatures (r = 0.7), suggesting that coral Sr/Ca time series from the tropical Indian Ocean will contribute to multi-proxy reconstructions of tropical mean temperatures.

Authors

Pfeiffer M , Dullo W , Zinke J , Garbe-Schoenberg D .

Year

1

DOI

10.1007/s00531-008-0326-z

ISBN-13

0

Keywords

Porites, Indian Ocean, Trace elements, El nino southern, oscillation, Pacific decadal, oscillation

Link

http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs00531-008-0326-z