An 8-century tropical Atlantic SST record from the Cariaco Basin: Baseline variability, twentieth-century warming, and Atlantic hurricane frequency

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Read Full Article (file size: 638901 bytes) Cited by PALEOCEANOGRAPHY, VOL. 22, PA4204, doi:10.1029/2007PA001427, 2007 An 8-century tropical Atlantic SST record from the Cariaco Basin: Baseline variability, twentieth-century warming, and Atlantic hurricane frequency David E. Black School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences, State University of New York at Stony Brook, Stony Brook, New York, USA Matthew A. Abahazi Department of Geology and Environmental Science, University of Akron, Akron, Ohio, USA Robert C. Thunell Department of Geological Sciences, University of South Carolina, Columbia, South Carolina, USA Alexey Kaplan Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory of Columbia University, Palisades, New York, USA Eric J. Tappa Department of Geological Sciences, University of South Carolina, Columbia, South Carolina, USA Larry C. Peterson Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences, University of Miami, Miami, Florida, USA Abstract We present the first direct comparison and calibration of a downcore foraminiferal Mg/Ca record to historical instrumental sea surface temperature (SST). Mg/Ca measured on the planktic foraminifer Globigerina bulloides from a Cariaco Basin sediment core strongly correlate with spring (March–May) instrumental SSTs between A.D. 1870 and 1990. A Mg/Ca SST equation is derived and a paleo-SST record is presented spanning the last 8 centuries, an interval that includes the end of the Medieval Warm Period and the Little Ice Age. The long-term record displays a surprising amount of variability. The temperature swings are not necessarily related to local upwelling variability but instead represent wider conditions in the Caribbean and western tropical Atlantic. The Mg/Ca SST record also captures the decadal and multidecadal variability observed in records of global land and sea surface temperature anomalies and Atlantic tropical storm and hurricane frequency over the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries. A divergence between the SST proxy record and Atlantic storm frequency around 1970 appears to reflect a fundamental change in Atlantic hurricane behavior noted in historical data. On average, twentieth-century temperatures are not the warmest in the entire record, but they do show the largest increase in magnitude and fastest rate of SST change over the last 800 a. Received 29 January 2007; accepted 14 August 2007; published 25 October 2007. Keywords: tropical Atlantic variability; sea surface temperature. Index Terms: 4954 Paleoceanography: Sea surface temperature; 1616 Global Change: Climate variability (1635, 3305, 3309, 4215, 4513); 1637 Global Change: Regional climate change; 4924 Paleoceanography: Geochemical tracers; 4902 Paleoceanography: Anthropogenic effects (1803, 4802). Read Full Article (file size: 638901 bytes) Cited by Citation: Black, D. E., M. A. Abahazi, R. C. Thunell, A. Kaplan, E. J. Tappa, and L. C. Peterson (2007), An 8-century tropical Atlantic SST record from the Cariaco Basin: Baseline variability, twentieth-century warming, and Atlantic hurricane frequency, Paleoceanography, 22, PA4204, doi:10.1029/2007PA001427. Copyright 2007 by the American Geophysical Union.

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