HR: 08:30h
AN: OS51D-03    [Abstracts]
TI: Multidecadal Oscillations in the Northern Caribbean Salinity Gradient: Connections Between Surface Temperature, Wind Stress, Salinity and Ekman Transport
AU: * Kilbourne, K H
EM: hali.kilbourne@noaa.gov
AF: NOAA, Earth System Research Laboratory, 325 Broadway, Boulder, CO 80305, United States
AU: Quinn, T M
EM: quinn@utig.ig.utexas.edu
AF: College of Marine Science, University of South Florida, 140 7th Ave.S, St. Petersburg, FL 33701, United States
AU: Quinn, T M
EM: quinn@utig.ig.utexas.edu
AF: Institute for Geophysics, Jackson School of Geosciences, University of Texas at Austin, 4412 Spicewood Springs Rd., Austin, TX 78759, United States
AU: Quinn, T M
EM: quinn@utig.ig.utexas.edu
AF: Department of Geological Sciences, Jackson School of Geosciences, University of Texas at Austin, 1 Universtiy Station, C1100, Austin, TX 78712, United States
AU: Webb, R S
EM: Robert.S.Webb@noaa.gov
AF: NOAA, Earth System Research Laboratory, 325 Broadway, Boulder, CO 80305, United States
AU: Guilderson, T P
EM: tguilderson@llnl.gov
AF: Center for Accelerator Mass Spectrometry, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, PO Box 808, L-397, Livermore, CA 94550, United States
AU: Guilderson, T P
EM: tguilderson@llnl.gov
AF: Department of Ocean Sciences and Institute of Marince Science, University of California at Santa Cruz, 1156 High St., Santa Cruz, CA 95064, United States
AU: Winter, A
EM: awinter@ucsd.edu
AF: Department of Marine Sciences, University of Puerto Rico, PO Box 9013, Mayaguez, PR 00681, Puerto Rico
AB: Coral skeletal oxygen isotopic variations are primarily controlled by temperature and the oxygen isotopic composition of the surface seawater. In most cases, this is controlled by regional changes in evaporation and precipitation, but may also be caused by advection of water masses with distinct isotopic composition. We present δ¹⁸O data from a coral growing off shore from southwestern Puerto Rico, representing surface temperature and seawater δ¹⁸O changes between 1751 and 2004 C. E. The data document multidecadal salinity variability in the Northern Caribbean that correlates with northern hemisphere sea surface temperature anomalies. The most recent shift in this multidecadal pattern occurs around 1970, and modern instrumental records are used with coral Δ¹⁴C from the same core to demonstrate what may have happened during previous shifts in the coral δ¹⁸O record. We hypothesize that the salinity changes around southwestern Puerto Rico are due to the advection of low salinity water from the southern Caribbean and/or Equatorial Atlantic regions in response to changes in mean wind stress curl and the resultant northward Ekman transport.
DE: 4200 OCEANOGRAPHY: GENERAL
DE: 4215 Climate and interannual variability (1616, 1635, 3305, 3309, 4513)
DE: 4220 Coral reef systems (4916)
DE: 4500 OCEANOGRAPHY: PHYSICAL
DE: 4572 Upper ocean and mixed layer processes
SC: Ocean Sciences [OS]
MN: 2007 Joint Assembly