El Nino Southern Oscillation-Related Salinity Variations Recorded in the Skeletal Geochemistry of a Porites Coral from Espiritu Santo, Vanuatu

Authors

K. H. Kilbourne, University of South Florida
Terrence M. Quinn, University of South FloridaFollow
Frederick W. Taylor, University of Texas
Thierry Delcroix, Institut de Recherche pour le Developpement
Yves Gouriou, Institut de Recherche pour le Developpement

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

10-5-2004

Keywords

El Nino-Southern Oscillation variability, salinity, coral geochemistry

Digital Object Identifier (DOI)

https://doi.org/10.1029/2004PA001033

Abstract

Coral skeletal geochemistry offers the potential to reconstruct the sea surface salinity (SSS) history of the tropical oceans on seasonal to interannual and perhaps centennial timescales because of the strong link between variation in SSS and seawater δ¹⁸O in tropical regions. We explore this potential using a monthly resolved, 65‐year record of skeletal δ¹⁸O and Sr/Ca variations in a Porites coral from Espiritu Santo, Vanuatu. We demonstrate that El Niño–Southern Oscillation–related climate variability strongly influences coral δ¹⁸O at Santo through local salinity changes associated with the position of the South Pacific Convergence Zone and the movement of its associated salinity front. Such a demonstration provides the “ground truth” data that can be used to place paleoclimate variability estimated using existing fossil coral records from this region into a modern conceptual framework. We also evaluate different methods of combining coral δ¹⁸O and Sr/Ca to reconstruct SSS and conclude that the coral δ¹⁸O anomaly time series provides the best fit to recent in situ SSS data at Santo.

Rights Information

Terms of use for work posted in Scholar Commons.

Was this content written or created while at USF?

Yes

Citation / Publisher Attribution

Paleoceanography and Paleoclimatology, v. 19, issue 4, art. PA4002

Copyright 2004 by the American Geophysical Union.

Scholar Commons Citation

Kilbourne, K. H.; Quinn, Terrence M.; Taylor, Frederick W.; Delcroix, Thierry; and Gouriou, Yves, "El Nino Southern Oscillation-Related Salinity Variations Recorded in the Skeletal Geochemistry of a Porites Coral from Espiritu Santo, Vanuatu" (2004). Marine Science Faculty Publications. 113.
https://digitalcommons.usf.edu/msc_facpub/113