Multicentury Reconstruction of Tropical Climate Variability from Red Sea Corals

Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Woods Hole MA

Investigators

Abstract

With this award, researchers aim to develop sea surface temperature and salinity records from the central Red Sea back ~400 years. The records will be generated using trace element and oxygen isotopes in coral skeletons, and will be measured in long drill cores at bi-weekly, seasonal and annual resolution. Both sea surface temperature and salinity in the Red Sea region are highly sensitive to climate forcing from the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO). The goal of this project is to reveal long-term changes in the NAO, and determine whether patterns of NAO behavior changed during periods of sustained warm and cold mean climate. The broader impacts involve the training and education of a female Ph.D. student and a female minority undergraduate student. Identifying a relationship between NAO behavior and mean climate would also be a substantial step toward improving our ability to predict NAO behavior in the face of future global warming.