Patterns of Climate Change in the Central and Eastern Sectors of the South Pacific

标题：南太平洋中东部地区的气候变化模式珊瑚文石中的同位素和化学示踪剂可以准确记录海表温度（SST）、盐度、降雨、养分有效性和河流输入等环境参数的季节和年际变化。珊瑚提供了以高时间分辨率准确重建热带海洋表面状况的唯一手段。对卫星月均海面温度的分析显示，大规模的海洋事件，如ENSO，在南太平洋中部和东部地区记录了一个重要的信号，并表明库克群岛和复活节群岛的珊瑚可能适合重建长期气候记录，以便：1)在全球大尺度上联系年际气候变率；2)确定史前ENSO事件的频率和幅度；3)评估与观测到的最近对流层变暖有关的人为影响的潜在证据。这个SGER奖支持一个项目，从库克岛和复活节岛的大量珊瑚群落中收集几个长达数百年的岩芯。最初的稳定同位素分析将以亚年分辨率对岩心的上部（最近）部分进行。通过将这些结果与仪器海温数据进行比较，我们可以准确地评估从这些地区发展长期气候时间序列重建的潜力。

Abstract ATM-9619035 Wellington, George M. University of Houston Title: Patterns of Climate Change in the Central and Eastern Sectors of the South Pacific Isotopic and chemical tracers within coral aragonite can accurately record seasonal and interannual changes in environmental parameters such as sea surface temperature (SST), salinity, rainfall, nutrient availability, and river input. Corals provide the only means to accurately reconstruct tropical ocean surface conditions at high temporal resolution. Analysis of satellite-derived monthly sea surface temperatures show that large scale oceanographic events, such as ENSO, register a significant signal in the central and eastern South Pacific region and indicate that corals from the Cook Islands and Easter Islands may be suitable for reconstructing long-term climate records to: 1) relate interannual climate variability over a large global scale, 2) identify the frequency and magnitude of pre-historic ENSO events and, 3) evaluate potential evidence of anthropogenic influence with respect to observed recent warming of the troposphere. This SGER award supports a project to collect several multi-century long cores from massive coral colonies at Cooks and Easter Islands. Initial stable isotope analyses will be conducted at subannual resolution on the upper (recent) portion to of the core. By comparing these results with instrumental SST data we can accurately assess the potential for developing long climatic time-series reconstructions from these regions.