HR: 08:05h
AN: A41F-01 INVITED     [Abstracts]
TI: An 800-Year Tropical Atlantic Sea Surface Temperature Variability Record From the Cariaco Basin, Venezuela
AU: * Black, D E
EM: david.black@stonybrook.edu
AF: Marine Sciences Research Center, Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, NY 11794, United States
AU: Thunell, R C
EM: thunell@geol.sc.edu
AF: Department of Geological Sciences, University of South Carolina , Columbia, SC 29208, United States
AU: Kaplan, A
EM: alexeyk@ldeo.columbia.edu
AF: Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, Columbia University, Palisades, NY 10964, United States
AU: Abahazi, M A
EM: MAbahazi@wm.com
AF: Department of Geology and Environmental Science, University of Akron, Akron, OH 44325, United States
AU: Tappa, E J
EM: tappa@geol.sc.edu
AF: Department of Geological Sciences, University of South Carolina , Columbia, SC 29208, United States
AB: Here we present an eight century tropical Atlantic SST record based on foraminiferal Mg/Ca recovered from Cariaco Basin sediments that have been calibrated to historical instrumental SSTs. Spatial correlations indicate that the proxy record is representative of SSTs over much of the Caribbean and tropical Atlantic. The Mg/Ca-SST record also correlates well with global land and sea surface temperature anomalies, and captures decadal-scale variations in Atlantic tropical storm and hurricane frequency over the late-19th and 20th centuries. The long-term record displays a surprising amount of variability for a tropical location under essentially modern boundary conditions. The tropical North Atlantic does not appear to have experienced a pronounced Medieval Warm Period relative to the complete record. However, strong Little Ice Age cooling of as much as 3 °C occurred between A. D. 1525 and 1625. Spring SSTs gradually rose between A. D. 1650 and 1900 followed by a 2.5 °C warming over the twentieth century. Viewed in the context of the complete record, twentieth century temperatures are not the warmest in the entire record on average, but they do show the largest increase in magnitude and fastest rate of SST change over the last eight hundred years. Spectral analysis of the Mg/Ca-SST data suggests that 2-5 and ~13 year SST variability that is characteristic of tropical Atlantic instrumental records may change through time.
DE: 1635 Oceans (1616, 3305, 4215, 4513)
DE: 1637 Regional climate change
DE: 3344 Paleoclimatology (0473, 4900)
SC: Atmospheric Sciences [A]
MN: 2007 Joint Assembly