The coral grayness in northern South China Sea and its description of interdecadal variation of precipitation in south China

Abstract

The interdecadal variation of coral grayness in northern South China Sea (SCS) is studied using the annual mean coral grayness in northern SCS from 1789 to 1992 and annual precipitation at Guangzhou from 1908 to 1992 by Singular Spectrum Analysis (SSA), correlation analysis, Mann-Kendall's abrupt change analysis and composite analysis. The interdecadal variation of south China precipitation as reflected by the series of Guangzhou precipitation rebuilt with the coral grayness is discussed. The results show that the variation of coral grayness in SCS has significant terms of tendency, much-weighted interdecadal variation and weak interannual variation. There was a century-scale abrupt change of coral grayness at the end of the 1880s that changed from positive anomalies to negative anomalies. The global field of SST difference corresponding to the point of abrupt change was negative anomalies over the SCS and neighboring northern Indian Ocean, most of central and western Pacific Ocean and coastal areas of the northern Atlantic Ocean. The large-scale distribution of SST anomalies is concomitant with the century-scale abrupt change of coral grayness in SCS. Negative correlation exists between the coral grayness in SCS and precipitation in Guangzhou on the interdecadal scale and the interdecadal precipitation in Guangzhou as reflected by the interdecadal data of SCS coral grayness shows that the interdecadal variation of south China precipitation changes significantly from phase to phase. The current study aims at contributing in the effort of identifying alternative indexes for climate change in south China on the interdecadal scale and beyond.