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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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