Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-8ctnn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-27T12:15:35.849Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Oceanic conditions in the eastern equatorial Pacific during the onset of ENSO in the Holocene

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Paul Loubere ,
Mathieu Richaud ,
Zhengyu Liu  and
Figen Mekik
Paul Loubere*
Affiliation:
Department of Geology and Environmental Geosciences, Northern Illinois University, DeKalb, IL 60115, USA
Mathieu Richaud
Affiliation:
Department of Geology and Environmental Geosciences, Northern Illinois University, DeKalb, IL 60115, USA
Zhengyu Liu
Affiliation:
Center for Climate Research, 1225 W. Dayton St., University of Wisconsin at Madison, Madison, WI 53706-1695, USA
Figen Mekik
Affiliation:
Department of Geology, Grand Valley State University, Allendale, MI 49401, USA
*
*Corresponding author.Email Address:paul@geol.niu.edu (P. Loubere)
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Records from South America show that modern ENSO (El Nino-Southern Oscillation) did not exist 7000 cal yr B.P. and has developed progressively since then. There has been little information available on oceanic conditions in the eastern equatorial Pacific (EEP) to constrain explanations for ENSO onset. We report quantitative observations on thermocline and mixed-layer conditions in the EEP during ENSO start up. We found important changes in both the thermocline and the mixed layer, indicating increased upwelling of cooler waters since 7000 cal yr B.P. This resulted from change in the source and/or properties of waters supplying the Equatorial Undercurrent, which feeds upwelling along the equator and the Peru margin. Modeling shows that ENSO is sensitive to subsurface conditions in the eastern equatorial Pacific and that the changes in the thermocline we observed were driven by extratropical processes, giving these a role in conditioning the development of ENSO. This is in contrast to models that call for control of equatorial Pacific oceanography by tropical processes only. These infer stronger upwelling and cooler surface waters for the EEP during the mid-Holocene, which is not supported by our results.

Type
Research Article
Information
Quaternary Research , Volume 60 , Issue 2 , September 2003 , pp. 142 - 148
Copyright
University of Washington

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Andrus, C, (2002). et al. Otolith 18-O record of mid-Holocene sea surface temperatures in Peru. Science 295, 1508 1511.Google Scholar
Bard, E, (1990). et al. Calibration of the 14C timescale over the past 30,000 years using spectrometric U-Th ages from Barbados corals. Nature 345, 405 441.Google Scholar
Clement, A, Seager, R, and Cane, M, (1999). Orbital controls on the El Nino/Southern Oscillation and the tropical climate. Paleoceanography 14, 441 456.Google Scholar
Colinveaux, P, (1972). Climate and the Galapagos Islands. Nature 240, 17 20.Google Scholar
Curry, W, (1983). et al. Seasonal changes in the isotopic composition of planktonic foraminifera collected in Panama basin sediment traps. Earth and Planetary Science letters 64, 33 43.Google Scholar
DeVries, T, (1999). et al. Determining the early history of El Nino. Science 276, 965 966.Google Scholar
Fairbanks, R, (1982). et al. Vertical distribution and isotopic fractionation of living planktonic foraminifera from the Panama basin. Nature 298, 841 844.Google Scholar
Hodell, D, (1991). et al. Reconstruction of Caribbean climate change over the past 10,500 years. Nature 352, 790 793.Google Scholar
Hodell, D, Charles, C, and Ninnemann, U, (2000). Comparison of interglacial stages in the South Atlantic sector of the sourthern ocean for the past 450 kyr. implications for Marine Isotope Stage (MIS) 11. Global and Planetary Change 24, 7 26.Google Scholar
Huang, B, and Liu, Z, (1999). Pacific subtropical-tropical thermocline water exchange in the National Centers for Environmental Prediction ocean model. Journal of geophysical Research 104, 11065 11076.Google Scholar
Koutavas, A, Lynch-Stieglitz, J, Marchitto, T, and Sachs, J, (2002). El Nino-like pattern in Ice Age Tropical Pacific sea surface temperature. Science 297, 226 230.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Liu, Z, Kutzbach, J, and Wu, L, (2000). Modeling climate shift of El Nino variability in the Holocene. Geophysical Research Letters 27, 2265 2268.Google Scholar
Liu, Z, Philander, S, and Pacanowski, R, (1994). A GCM study of tropical-subtropical upper-ocean water exchange. Journal of Physical Oceanography 24, 2606 2623.Google Scholar
Loubere, P, (2001). Nutrient and oceanographic changes in the Eastern Equatorial Pacific from the last full glacial to the Present. Global and Planetary Change 29, 77 98.Google Scholar
Loubere, P, and Fariduddin, M, (1999). Quantitative estimation of global patterns of surface ocean biological productivity and its seasonal variation on timescales from centuries to millennia. Global Biogeochemical Cycles 13, 115 133.Google Scholar
Mix, A, Le, J, and Shackleton, N, (1995). Benthic foraminiferal stable isotope stratigraphy of site 846. 0–1.8 Ma. Proceedings Ocean Drilling Prog. Science Research 138, 839 854.Google Scholar
Mix, A, Morey, A, Pisias, N, and Hostetler, S, (1999). Foraminiferal faunal estimates of paleotemperature. circumventing the no-analog problem yields cool ice age tropics. Paleoceanography 14, 350 359.Google Scholar
Nurnberg, D, Bijma, J, and Hemleben, C, (1996). Assessing the reliability of magnesium in foraminiferal calcite as a proxy for water mass temperature. Geochimica Cosmochimica Acta 60, 2483 2484.Google Scholar
Philander, S, (1990). El Nino, La Nina and the Southern Oscillation. Academic Press, San Diego.Google Scholar
Pisias, N, and Mix, A, (1997). Spatial and temporal oceanographic variability of the eastern equatorial Pacific during the late Pleistocene. evidence from radiolarian microfossils. Paleoceanography 12, 381 394.Google Scholar
Ravelo, A, and Fairbanks, R, (1992). Oxygen isotope composition of multiple species of planktonic foraminifera. recorders of the modern photic zone temperature gradient. Paleoceanography 7, 815 831.Google Scholar
Riedinger, M, Steinitz-Kannan, M, Last, W, and Brenner, M, (2002). A-6100 14C yr record of El Nino activity from the Galapagos Islands. Journal of Paleolimnology 27, 1 7.Google Scholar
Rodbell, D, (1999). et al. An-15,000 year record of El Nino-driven alluviation in Southwestern Ecuador. Science 283, 516 520.Google Scholar
Sandweiss, D, (1996). et al. Geoarcheological evidence from Peru for a 5000 years B.P. onset of El Nino. Science 273, 1531 1533.Google Scholar
Sandweiss, D, Maasch, K, Burger, R, Richardson, J, Rollins, H, and Clement, A, (2001). Variation in Holocene El Nino frequencies. Climate records and cultural consequences in ancient Peru. Geology 29, 603 606.Google Scholar
Shackleton, N, and Pisias, N, (1985). Atmospheric carbon dioxide, orbital forcing and climate. Sundquist, E, and Broecker, W The Carbon Cycle and Atmospheric CO2 . Natural Variations Archean to Present. Geophysical Monograph Series 32, American Geophysical Union, Washington DC. 303 317.Google Scholar
Thompson, L, (1995). et al. Late Glacial stage and Holocene tropical ice core records from Huascaran Peru. Science 269, 46 50.Google Scholar
Thunell, R, Curry, W, and Honjo, S, (1983). Seasonal variation in the flux of planktonic foraminifera. time series sediment trap results from the Panama Basin. Earth and Planetary Science letters 64, 44 55.Google Scholar
Timmermann, A, (1999). et al. Increased El Nino frequency in a climate model forced by future greenhouse warming. Nature 398, 694 697.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Toggweiler, J, Dixon, D, and Broecker, W, (1991). The Peru upwelling and the ventilation of the South Pacific thermocline. Journal of Geophysical Research 96, 20467 20497.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Trenbreth, K, and Hoar, T, (1996). The 1990-1995 El Nino-Southern Oscillation event. longest on record. Geophysical Research Letters 23, 57 60.Google Scholar
Tudhope, A, (2001). et al. Variability in the El Nino-Southern Oscillation through a glacial-interglacial cycle. Science 291, 1511 1517.Google Scholar
Watkins, J, Mix, A, and Wilson, J, (1996). Living planktic foraminifera. tracers of circulation and productivity regimes in the central equatorial Pacific. Deep Sea Research II 43, 1257 1282.Google Scholar
Watkins, J, Mix, A, and Wilson, J, (1998). Living planktic foraminifera in the central tropical Pacific Ocean. articulating the equatorial ’cold tongue’ during La Nina, 1992. Marine Micropaleontology 33, 157 174.Google Scholar