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GEOPHYSICAL RESEARCH LETTERS,
VOL. 36,
L21606,
4 PP., 2009
doi:10.1029/2009GL040270
Late 20th century warming and freshening in the central tropical Pacific
School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, Georgia, USA
School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, Georgia, USA
Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, California, USA
School of Earth Sciences, Stanford University, Stanford, California, USA
Global climate models and analyses of instrumental datasets provide a wide range of scenarios for future tropical Pacific climate change, limiting the accuracy of regional climate projections. Coral records provide continuous reconstructions of tropical Pacific climate trends that are difficult to quantify using the short, sparse instrumental datasets available from the tropical Pacific. Here, we present coral-based reconstructions of late 20th century sea-surface temperature and salinity trends from several islands in the central tropical Pacific. The coral data reveal warming trends that increase towards the equator, implying a decrease in equatorial upwelling in the last decades. Seawater freshening trends on the southern edge of the Inter-Tropical Convergence Zone suggest a strengthening and/or an equatorward shift of the convergence zone. Together, the new coral records support a late 20th century trend towards “El Niño-like” conditions in the tropical Pacific, in line with the majority of coupled global climate model projections.
Received 29 July 2009; accepted 2 October 2009; published 12 November 2009.
Citation: (2009), Late 20th century warming and freshening in the central tropical Pacific, Geophys. Res. Lett., 36, L21606, doi:10.1029/2009GL040270.
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