Sampling Galapagos corals for SST trend reconstruction

通过这个奖项，PI将对加拉帕戈斯群岛的活珊瑚进行采样，这些珊瑚在未来几个月面临严重破坏的威胁，而ENSO的大多数动力学模型预测，在这段时间内，将出现中等到强烈的厄尔尼诺事件。之前的厄尔尼诺事件已经导致该地区95%以上的珊瑚死亡，本项目中确定用于采样的珊瑚礁可能是加拉帕戈斯群岛仅存的百年以上的活着的Porite(大珊瑚)。根据测量的大小和生长速度，PI预测这些珊瑚保存了过去一到三个世纪以来每年可分辨的海洋表面温度记录，这代表着该地区现有珊瑚记录长度的大幅延长。来自新核心的记录将为确定赤道海温梯度在过去一个世纪中如何演变提供关键的一块拼图，并将阐明ENSO对人为气候强迫做出反应的机制。实地考察项目将包括一名来自亚利桑那大学的博士生和一名来自厄瓜多尔的研究生。

With this award the PI will sample living corals in the Galapagos islands that face a threat of serious damage in the next several months, a period during which a moderate to strong El Nino episode is predicted by most dynamical model forecasts of ENSO. Previous El Nino episodes have caused upwards of 95% coral mortality in the region, and the reef identified for sampling in this project may be the only living Porites (massive coral) of century-plus age remaining in the Galapagos archipelago. Based on the measured sizes and growth rates, the PIs predict that these corals preserve an annually-resolved record of sea surface temperature over the past one to three centuries, which represents a substantial extension of existing coral record length in the region. Records from the new cores will provide a critical piece of the puzzle in determining how the equatorial gradient of SST has evolved over the past century and will shed light on the mechanisms by which ENSO responds to anthropogenic climate forcing. The field program will involve a PhD student from the University of Arizona and a graduate student from Ecuador.