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Holocene El Niño–Southern Oscillation variability reflected in subtropical Australian precipitation
Citation
Barr, C and Tibby, J and Leng, MJ and Tyler, JJ and Henderson, ACG and Overpeck, JT and Simpson, GL and Cole, JE and Phipps, SJ and Marshall, JC and McGregor, GB and Hua, Q and McRobie, FH, Holocene El Nino-Southern Oscillation variability reflected in subtropical Australian precipitation, Scientific Reports, 9 Article 1627. ISSN 2045-2322 (2019) [Refereed Article]
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Copyright Statement
Copyright 2019 The Authors. Licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
DOI: doi:10.1038/s41598-019-38626-3
Abstract
The La Niña and El Niño phases of the El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) have major impacts on regional rainfall patterns around the globe, with substantial environmental, societal and economic implications. Long-term perspectives on ENSO behaviour, under changing background conditions, are essential to anticipating how ENSO phases may respond under future climate scenarios. Here, we derive a 7700-year, quantitative precipitation record using carbon isotope ratios from a single species of leaf preserved in lake sediments from subtropical eastern Australia. We find a generally wet (more La Niña-like) mid-Holocene that shifted towards drier and more variable climates after 3200 cal. yr BP, primarily driven by increasing frequency and strength of the El Niño phase. Climate model simulations implicate a progressive orbitally-driven weakening of the Pacific Walker Circulation as contributing to this change. At centennial scales, high rainfall characterised the Little Ice Age (~1450–1850 CE) in subtropical eastern Australia, contrasting with oceanic proxies that suggest El Niño-like conditions prevail during this period. Our data provide a new western Pacific perspective on Holocene ENSO variability and highlight the need to address ENSO reconstruction with a geographically diverse network of sites to characterise how both ENSO, and its impacts, vary in a changing climate.
Item Details
| Item Type: | Refereed Article |
|---|---|
| Keywords: | ENSO, El Nino-Southern Oscillation, Holocene, climate variability, subtropics, Australia, precipitation |
| Research Division: | Earth Sciences |
| Research Group: | Physical Geography and Environmental Geoscience |
| Research Field: | Palaeoclimatology |
| Objective Division: | Environment |
| Objective Group: | Climate and Climate Change |
| Objective Field: | Climate Variability (excl. Social Impacts) |
| UTAS Author: | Phipps, SJ (Dr Steven Phipps) |
| ID Code: | 130741 |
| Year Published: | 2019 |
| Web of Science® Times Cited: | 4 |
| Deposited By: | Oceans and Cryosphere |
| Deposited On: | 2019-02-08 |
| Last Modified: | 2019-06-13 |
| Downloads: | 12 View Download Statistics |
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