A Coral Perspective on Holocene Climate Variability in the Tropical Western Atlantic

University Of South Florida, Tampa FL

Investigators

Abstract

Funds are recommended for assessment of average and seasonal sea-surface temperature and seawater delta O-18 at annual to decadal scales from monthly sub-samples in select intervals of the Holocene on samples from the Dry Tortugas. The study also includes a calibration effort for the past century. It aims to reconstruct Holocene (selected time-slices over the last 8.2 Ka) changes in western Tropical Atlantic SSTs and salinity using Sr/Ca and stable isotope analyses of fossil corals. The approach takes advantage of the fact that corals record temperature and (salinity) histories over a narrow depth range of the tropical ocean, and that fossil corals provide a means to reconstruct ocean properties for discrete short (multi-century) time slices throughout the Holocene. Coral paleoclimate reconstructions from the tropics will improve our understanding of the mechanisms driving the climate changes in the Holocene.