Pacific Decadal Oscillation documented in a coral record of North Pacific winter temperature since 1873

• Published in: Geophysical research letters Vol. 37; no. 14
• Main Authors: Felis, Thomas, Suzuki, Atsushi, Kuhnert, Henning, Rimbu, Norel, Kawahata, Hodaka
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Washington, DC Blackwell Publishing Ltd 01.07.2010; American Geophysical Union; John Wiley & Sons, Inc
• Subjects: Climate change; Coral record; Coral reefs; Earth; Earth sciences; Earth, ocean, space; Exact sciences and technology; Global climate; Marine fish; Oceanography; Pacific Decadal Oscillation; Sea surface temperature; Pacific Ocean; North Pacific; Mid latitude; corals; atmospheric precipitation; Spatial correlation; global; reefs; climate; Sea surface temperature; variability; subtropical zone; anomalies; Fishery; Winter; islands; America; Pacific decadal oscillation; growth; Invertebrata; invertebrates
• ISSN: 0094-8276; 1944-8007
• DOI: 10.1029/2010GL043572

The Pacific Decadal Oscillation (PDO), the leading mode of sea surface temperature (SST) anomalies in the extratropical North Pacific Ocean, has widespread impacts on precipitation in the Americas and marine fisheries in the North Pacific. However, marine proxy records with a temporal resolution that resolves interannual to interdecadal SST variability in the extratropical North Pacific are extremely rare. Here we demonstrate that the winter Sr/Ca and U/Ca records of an annually‐banded reef coral from the Ogasawara Islands in the western subtropical North Pacific are significantly correlated with the instrumental winter PDO index over the last century. The reconstruction of the PDO is further improved by combining the coral data with an existing eastern mid‐latitude North Pacific growth ring record of geoduck clams. The spatial correlations of this combined index with global climate fields suggest that SST proxy records from these locations provide potential for PDO reconstructions further back in time.