Decline of surface temperature and salinity in the western tropical Pacific Ocean in the Holocene epoch

Lowell Stott (), Kevin Cannariato, Robert Thunell, Gerald H. Haug, Athanasios Koutavas and Steve Lund
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Lowell Stott: University of Southern California
Kevin Cannariato: University of Southern California
Robert Thunell: University of South Carolina
Gerald H. Haug: Geoforschungszentrum Potsdam
Athanasios Koutavas: Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Steve Lund: University of Southern California

Nature, 2004, vol. 431, issue 7004, 56-59

Abstract: Abstract In the present-day climate, surface water salinities are low in the western tropical Pacific Ocean and increase towards the eastern part of the basin1. The salinity of surface waters in the tropical Pacific Ocean is thought to be controlled by a combination of atmospheric convection, precipitation, evaporation and ocean dynamics2, and on interannual timescales significant variability is associated with the El Niño/Southern Oscillation cycles. However, little is known about the variability of the coupled ocean–atmosphere system on timescales of centuries to millennia. Here we combine oxygen isotope and Mg/Ca data from foraminifers retrieved from three sediment cores in the western tropical Pacific Ocean to reconstruct Holocene sea surface temperatures and salinities in the region. We find a decrease in sea surface temperatures of ∼0.5 °C over the past 10,000 yr, whereas sea surface salinities decreased by ∼1.5 practical salinity units. Our data imply either that the Pacific basin as a whole has become progressively less salty or that the present salinity gradient along the Equator has developed relatively recently.

Date: 2004
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DOI: 10.1038/nature02903

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