Coral windows onto seasonal climate variability in the northern Caribbean since 1479

Mean surface ocean conditions in the Caribbean were up to ∼2°C cooler than today at times during the Little Ice Age. The seasonal context for such mean state changes is important for determining the mechanisms involved. We reconstructed surface ocean conditions in southwest Puerto Rico at approximately monthly resolution over eight 4–12 year periods during the last ∼520 years to test if the seasonal cycles of temperature or salinity varied with mean state. We carried out paired analyses of Sr/Ca and δ18O for two coral cores. The δ18O data contained clear annual cycles and were significantly correlated to temperature during the 20th century calibration periods (1993–2004 and 1902–1912, r = 0.73). The Sr/Ca data contained high‐frequency noise that obscured the seasonal cycles, although the centennial variability matched that of the coral δ18O, indicating a common forcing that is likely temperature. The seasonal coral δ18O amplitude averaged 0.60 ± 0.17‰, with none of the periods significantly different from the most recent. The simplest explanation is that the amplitudes of seasonal seawater δ18O and temperature variations were not different from today. Previous work in the southern Caribbean indicates that the Intertropical Convergence Zone was shifted southward or weaker during the Little Ice Age, and we speculate about how this could occur with no apparent affect on seasonality in the northern Caribbean.

[1]  E. Mosley‐Thompson,et al.  High-resolution palaeoclimatology of the last millennium: a review of current status and future prospects , 2009 .

[2]  C. Saenger,et al.  Interpreting sea surface temperature from strontium/calcium ratios in Montastrea corals: Link with growth rate and implications for proxy reconstructions , 2008 .

[3]  T. Guilderson,et al.  Paleoclimate proxy perspective on Caribbean climate since the year 1751: Evidence of cooler temperatures and multidecadal variability , 2008 .

[4]  D. Enfield,et al.  Climate Response to Anomalously Large and Small Atlantic Warm Pools during the Summer , 2008 .

[5]  L. Peterson,et al.  An 8-century tropical Atlantic SST record from the Cariaco Basin: Baseline variability, twentieth-century warming, and Atlantic hurricane frequency , 2007 .

[6]  Gavin A. Schmidt,et al.  Water isotope expressions of intrinsic and forced variability in a coupled ocean‐atmosphere model , 2007 .

[7]  T. Guilderson,et al.  Decadal- to interannual-scale source water variations in the Caribbean Sea recorded by Puerto Rican coral radiocarbon , 2006 .

[8]  G. Haug,et al.  Variability in the mean latitude of the Atlantic Intertropical Convergence Zone as recorded by riverine input of sediments to the Cariaco Basin (Venezuela) , 2006 .

[9]  T. Corrège.  Sea surface temperature and salinity reconstruction from coral geochemical tracers , 2006 .

[10]  T. Quinn,et al.  Reproducibility of geochemical and climatic signals in the Atlantic coral Montastraea faveolata , 2006 .

[11]  F. Taylor,et al.  SST artifacts in coral proxy records produced by early marine diagenesis in a modern coral from Rabaul, Papua New Guinea , 2006 .

[12]  J. Reitner,et al.  Annual to interannual temperature variability in the Caribbean during the Maunder sunspot minimum , 2005 .

[13]  T. Guilderson,et al.  Climate change on the Yucatan Peninsula during the Little Ice Age , 2005, Quaternary Research.

[14]  D. Richards,et al.  Wet periods in northeastern Brazil over the past 210 kyr linked to distant climate anomalies , 2004, Nature.

[15]  L. Peterson,et al.  A 2000-year record of Caribbean and tropical North Atlantic hydrographic variability , 2004 .

[16]  A. Solow,et al.  A potential bias in coral reconstruction of sea surface temperature , 2004 .

[17]  Y. Loya,et al.  Mean oxygen-isotope signatures in Porites spp. corals: inter-colony variability and correction for extension-rate effects , 2003, Coral Reefs.

[18]  J. Reitner,et al.  Sr/Ca ratios and oxygen isotopes from sclerosponges: Temperature history of the Caribbean mixed layer and thermocline during the Little Ice Age , 2003 .

[19]  Elizabeth C. Kent,et al.  Global analyses of sea surface temperature, sea ice, and night marine air temperature since the late nineteenth century , 2003 .

[20]  D. Enfield,et al.  A Further Study of the Tropical Western Hemisphere Warm Pool , 2003 .

[21]  T. Quinn,et al.  A multiproxy approach to reconstructing sea surface conditions using coral skeleton geochemistry , 2002 .

[22]  H. Elderfield,et al.  A high‐resolution calibration of Sr/Ca thermometry using the Caribbean coral Montastraea annularis , 2002 .

[23]  Björn A. Malmgren,et al.  A centennial-scale variability of tropical North Atlantic surface hydrography during the late Holocene , 2002 .

[24]  A. Winter,et al.  Evaluation of the fidelity of isotope records as an environmental proxy in the coral Montastraea , 2002, Coral Reefs.

[25]  S. B. Moran,et al.  Uranium and thorium isotopic and concentration measurements by magnetic sector inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry , 2002 .

[26]  Gerald H. Haug,et al.  Southward Migration of the Intertropical Convergence Zone Through the Holocene , 2001, Science.

[27]  A. Kuijpers,et al.  Late Holocene Changes in Precipitation and Hydrography Recorded in Marine Sediments from the Northeastern Caribbean Sea , 2001, Quaternary Research.

[28]  D. Enfield,et al.  The Tropical Western Hemisphere Warm Pool , 2001 .

[29]  A. Winter,et al.  Seasonal changes in sea surface temperature and salinity during the Little Ice Age in the Caribbean Sea deduced from Mg/Ca and 18O/16O ratios in corals , 2001 .

[30]  J. Morell,et al.  Seasonal variation of physical and biogeochemical features in eastern Caribbean Surface Water , 2001 .

[31]  J. Christy,et al.  Caribbean sea surface temperatures: Two‐to‐three degrees cooler than present during the Little Ice Age , 2000 .

[32]  Evans,et al.  Eight centuries of north atlantic ocean atmosphere variability , 1999, Science.

[33]  D. Schrag.  Rapid analysis of high‐precision Sr/Ca ratios in corals and other marine carbonates , 1999 .

[34]  R. S. Appeldoorn,et al.  Sea surface temperatures and coral reef bleaching off La Parguera, Puerto Rico (northeastern Caribbean Sea) , 1998, Coral Reefs.

[35]  Mortimer,et al.  Temperature and surface-ocean water balance of the mid-holocene tropical western pacific , 1998, Science.

[36]  M. Benno Blumenthal,et al.  Reduced space optimal analysis for historical data sets: 136 years of Atlantic sea surface temperatures , 1997 .

[37]  Pascal Yiou,et al.  Macintosh Program performs time‐series analysis , 1996 .

[38]  A. Chivas,et al.  Biological Controls on Coral Sr/Ca and δ18O Reconstructions of Sea Surface Temperatures , 1995, Science.

[39]  C. Gautier,et al.  A Satellite-derived Climatology of the ITCZ , 1993 .

[40]  Glenn A. Jones,et al.  Reconstruction of Caribbean climate change over the past 10,500 years , 1991, Nature.

[41]  G. Wasserburg,et al.  Dating earthquakes with high-precision thorium-230 ages of very young corals , 1988 .

[42]  Jon N. Weber,et al.  Temperature dependence of oxygen‐18 concentration in reef coral carbonates , 1972 .

[43]  K. H. Kilbourne.  Tropical Atlantic and Caribbean climate variations during the past eight centuries , 2006 .

[44]  T. McConnaughey.  13C and 18O isotopic disequilibrium in biological carbonates: II. In vitro simulation of kinetic isotope effects , 1989 .

[45]  T. McConnaughey.  13C and 18O isotopic disequilibrium in biological carbonates: I. Patterns , 1989 .