Extending the Instrumental Record of Ocean-Atmosphere Variability into the Last Interglacial Using Tropical Corals

Felis, Thomas; Marum,

doi:10.5670/oceanog.2020.209

Cited by 10 publications

(8 citation statements)

References 57 publications

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“…Coral Sr/Ca provides a well‐established proxy for sea surface temperature (SST) (e.g., Beck et al., 1992; Corrège, 2006; Schrag, 1999), and is widely applied to reconstruct past climate in the Pacific (e.g., DeLong et al., 2012; Jimenez et al., 2018; Linsley et al., 2015) and across the global tropics (e.g., Emile‐Geay et al., 2017; Loope et al., 2020; Tierney et al., 2015) (as reviewed by Felis (2020)). Coral‐climate reconstructions provide insights into changes in interannual climate variability such as the El Niño‐Southern Oscillation (ENSO) (e.g., Cobb et al., 2003, 2013; Grothe et al., 2020), Indian Ocean Dipole (e.g., Abram et al., 2003, 2007, 2020), decadal climate variability (e.g., DeLong et al., 2012; Felis et al., 2010; Linsley et al., 2015; Nurhati et al., 2011), and long‐term climate trends (e.g., Carilli et al., 2014; Jimenez et al., 2018; Thompson et al., 2015; Wu, 2013) over time periods that predate the instrumental record.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Impacts of Coral Growth on Geochemistry: Lessons From the Galápagos Islands

Reed

Thompson

Cole

et al. 2021

Paleoceanog and Paleoclimatol

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Impacts of Coral Growth on Geochemistry: Lessons From the Galápagos Islands

Reed

Thompson

Cole

et al. 2021

Paleoceanog and Paleoclimatol

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“…This allows for the generation of time series of proxy data for SSTs and many other environmental parameters with high, i.e., monthly to weekly, temporal resolution. Depending on the life span of the corals, these time series can cover periods of several hundreds of years and allow for an accurate description of past environmental change for regions without long, systematic weather records or from the deep geological past (1,2). As a result of seasonal temperature changes, the skeletons show a pronounced annual banding, which is imaged in x-radiographs as a sequence of alternating bands of high and low density (3)(4)(5).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…One high-low density band couplet typically represents 1 year of growth where the high-density portion of the couplets is usually formed during winter; however, variations exist between species and colonies (3,6). In combination with cyclic changes of skeletal bulk density, proxy data of SST records, such as oxygen isotope ratios ( 18 O) or concentrations of certain trace elements (Sr/Ca and Li/Mg), provide the backbone for the construction of detailed internal chronologies (2). However, toward the limits of the latitudinal range of tropical shallow-water corals, as a result of decreasing SST and light intensity, extension rates decrease to a few millimeters per year or less, and growth pauses sometimes occur when winter SSTs fall below a critical threshold (7).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…For example, it is subject to the so-called vital effects in fast-growing massive corals, which allow an application as a (paleo-)thermometer. However, for these applications, the ratio of 18 O and 16 O (expressed as  18 O value) in seawater must be known or, in case of subannual reconstructions, can be assumed to be constant over the year (2). Complications of the  18 O thermometer exist, however, because the offset of  18 O values between coral and seawater can vary substantially between single skeletons from one site with homogeneous SST structure ("intercolony offsets") (16).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Slow-growing reef corals as climate archives: A case study of the Middle Eocene Climatic Optimum 40 Ma ago

et al. 2022

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The skeletons of stony corals on tropical shallow-water reefs are high-resolution climate archives. However, their systematic use for unlocking climate dynamics of the geologic past is limited by the susceptibility of the porous aragonite skeleton to diagenetic alterations. Here, we present oxygen and carbon isotope time series (monthly resolution) from reef corals with an unusual unaltered preservation from the Middle Eocene Climatic Optimum (MECO) “hyperthermal” (40 million years ago). Annual extension of the corals at the studied midlatitude site (France) was remarkably low (0.2 cm). Nonetheless, isotope signatures display no evidence for kinetic disequilibria that discredit their use as climate archive, but growth rate–dependent annual signal amplitude attenuations need corrections using an innovative sampling approach. Thereafter, we present evidence of symbiotic zooxanthellae in reef corals of the Paleogene and subdued sea surface temperature seasonality of only 7° to 8°C during the MECO, consistent with the globally equant climate of the hothouse.

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“…Isotopic and geochemical proxies incorporated into their massive carbonate skeletons during growth can provide reconstructions of surface ocean conditions, such as temperature and hydrology, for centuries at subseasonal resolution (e.g. Gagan et al 2000, Lough 2010, Felis 2020). These coral proxy records are commonly interpreted in terms of tropical modes of climate variability, such as the El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) (e.g.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

On the relationship between Scandinavian extreme precipitation days, atmospheric blocking and Red Sea coral oxygen isotopes

Rîmbu

Felis

2022

Environ. Res.: Climate

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In the context of ongoing climate change towards a warmer world, it is important to gain insights into the frequency and intensity of weather and climate extreme events over longer periods of time prior to the start of instrumental observations. Reconstructions of their variability are usually hampered by the rareness of natural archives for the pre-instrumental period that document climate variability at a sub-seasonal resolution. A potential archive for extreme events are annually banded reef corals which incorporate isotopic proxies of temperature and hydrology into their carbonate skeletons at sub-seasonal resolution, grow for centuries, and overlap with the observational period. Here, we investigate the relationship between the frequency of heavy precipitation days in southwestern Scandinavia and colder conditions in the northern Red Sea during winter, as documented by a coral oxygen isotope record from the northernmost area of tropical reef growth in the European sector of the Northern Hemisphere. Statistical analysis of observational data reveals that cold conditions in the northern Red Sea are associated with an increased frequency of heavy precipitation in southwestern Scandinavia. From a synoptic-scale perspective, this teleconnection can be explained by winter atmospheric blocking over mid-latitude Europe, which is a large-scale pattern of atmospheric pressure that can be active for several days or weeks. We show that increased winter blocking activity in the European region is related to an increased frequency of extreme moisture transport by atmospheric rivers affecting southwestern Scandinavia, as well as to an increased meridional advection of cold continental air from the north towards the subtropical northern Red Sea. The coral-based Scandinavian heavy precipitation reconstruction shows strong decadal variations during the pre-instrumental period. Our results provide insights into the frequency of winter atmospheric blocking events and related daily precipitation extremes in the European region, as well as into the impact of mid-latitude climate extremes on coral reef ecosystems in the northern Red Sea, during the last centuries.

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Extending the Instrumental Record of Ocean-Atmosphere Variability into the Last Interglacial Using Tropical Corals

Cited by 10 publications

References 57 publications

Impacts of Coral Growth on Geochemistry: Lessons From the Galápagos Islands

Impacts of Coral Growth on Geochemistry: Lessons From the Galápagos Islands

Slow-growing reef corals as climate archives: A case study of the Middle Eocene Climatic Optimum 40 Ma ago

On the relationship between Scandinavian extreme precipitation days, atmospheric blocking and Red Sea coral oxygen isotopes

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