Abstract
Monthly skeletal stable isotope measurements of a Porites australiensis coral from Abraham Reef, Australia, spanning the period from 1981 to 1991, are compared with monthly averaged SST (sea surface temperature) from satellite collected AVHRR (Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer) and monthly downward surface short‐wave insolation (SSI) measurements. We found that the δ18O values varied as a function of the change in seawater temperature. There were anomalously high δ18O values in coral that grew during the summer season of the three El Niño events 1982–83, 1987, and 1991. Advection of seawater with higher salinity (and higher δ18O values) to our site or discrepancies between ocean skin temperature and mixed layer SST are likely reasons for the reduced resolution of δ18O‐based SST. Increased coral δ13C values occurred simultaneously with increases in SSI. During most El Niño events the maximum and minimum δ13C values were lower than during normal years.
Highlights
Finnigan 252 MAT light isotope ratio mass spectrometerin the laboratoryof William Curry and Dorinda Ostermannat theE1Nifio events are associatedwith anomalouspatterns of WoodsHole OceanographicInstitution
The data is of E1Nifio on seasonasl tableisotopesignaturesin coralsfrom availableas a globaldataset(2048 x 1024 pixels) startingin the southwesternPacific subtropical gyre has not been Oct. 1981 published.Previouswork [Gaganet al., 1994; McCulloch et and are stored as HDF (Hierarchical Data Format software at al., 1994] on GreatBarrierReef (GBR) corals show a strong salinity signal associatedwith E1Nifio conditions that are a consequencoef reducedrunoff becausetheir coralsgrew within 30km of the Australiancoast
Becausethe somewereexpanded.This representsa biasin the data because stable isotope data were from approximately monthly linear extension is not necessarily correlated with samples, we averaged the weekly MCSST data to obtain calcificationor time
Summary
E1Nifio events are associatedwith anomalouspatterns of WoodsHole OceanographicInstitution. Ftp pødaac'jpl'nasa'gøv/pub/archive/mcsst) published.Previouswork [Gaganet al., 1994; McCulloch et and are stored as HDF (Hierarchical Data Format software at al., 1994] on GreatBarrierReef (GBR) corals show a strong salinity signal associatedwith E1Nifio conditions that are a consequencoef reducedrunoff becausetheir coralsgrew within 30km of the Australiancoast. Becausethe somewereexpanded.This representsa biasin the data because stable isotope data were from approximately monthly linear extension is not necessarily correlated with samples, we averaged the weekly MCSST data to obtain calcificationor time. This method is commonly monthly records.We used SST data from 22ø09'S,152ø56'E, usedto align time-series becauseit capturesthe main coral located 4km SW of the coral site. To summarizteh,e moststrikinganomaliesarethe high 580 valuesduringthe summersof 1982, 1987, and 1991, andthe low53Cvaltiesin 1982-83and1987(Fig.2)
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