HR: 0800h
AN: PP31A-0181    [Abstracts]
TI: Low frequency climate variability in the Caribbean: what proxy reconstructions tell us
AU: * Winter, A
EM: awinter@uprm.edu
AF: University of Puerto Rico, Department of Marine Sciences, Mayaguez, PR 00680, United States
AU: Stott, L
EM: stott@usc.edu
AF: University of Southern California, Department of Earth Science, Los Angeles, CA 90089, United States
AU: Timmermann, A
EM: Axel@hawaii.edu
AF: University of Hawaii, IPRC, School of Ocean and Earth Science and Technology, Honolulu, HI 96822, United States
AU: Jury, M
EM: jury@uprm.edu
AF: University of Puerto Rico, Department of Physics, Mayaguez, PR 00680, United States
AU: Cannariato, K
EM: cannaria@usc.edu
AF: University of Southern California, Department of Earth Science, Los Angeles, CA 90089, United States
AU: Miller, T
EM: tmiller@uprm.edu
AF: University of Puerto Rico, Department of Geology, Mayaguez, PR 00680, United States
AU: Chang, H
EM: cheng021@umn.edu
AF: University of Minnesota, Department of Geology and Geophysics, Minneapolis, MN 55455, United States
AU: Edwards, L
EM: edwar001@umn.edu
AF: University of Minnesota, Department of Geology and Geophysics, Minneapolis, MN 55455, United States
AU: Gallup, C
EM: cgallup@d.umn.edu
AF: University of Minnesota, Department of Geological Sciences, Duluth, MN 55812, United States
AU: Sinha, A
EM: asinha@usc.edu
AF: University of Southern California, Department of Earth Science, Los Angeles, CA 90089, United States
AB: A number of proxy records document low frequency variability in ocean-atmosphere climate over the past millennia. The latter part of this period coincides with historical observations that reveal warming trends and a 65- 80 year cycle known as the Atlantic Multi-decadal Oscillation (AMO), against which many proxies are calibrated. However there is some divergence amongst these reconstructions. Puerto Rico is situated in a climatically sensitive region where multi-decadal climatic influences are manifest in seasonal hurricane frequency. We have developed a proxy for low frequency climate fluctuations based upon the 18O of speleothem calcite from a cave in Puerto Rico. Our speleothem-based data is shown to be sensitive to regional rainfall and North Atlantic sea surface temperatures. We compare a number of proxy records and find good agreement in the observed period after 1850 during two cycles of the AMO. However the indices diverge significantly over the three previous centuries, implying different sensitivities to climate forcing and changes in the frequency of climate itself.
DE: 1616 Climate variability (1635, 3305, 3309, 4215, 4513)
DE: 4870 Stable isotopes (0454, 1041)
DE: 4900 PALEOCEANOGRAPHY (0473, 3344)
DE: 4901 Abrupt/rapid climate change (1605)
DE: 4958 Speleothems
SC: Paleoceanography and Paleoclimatology [PP]
MN: 2007 Fall Meeting