NOAA/WDS Paleoclimatology - Maiana - Data

Today, the El Niño/Southern Oscillation (ENSO) system is the primary driver of interannual variability in global climate, but its long-term behaviour is poorly understood. Instrumental observations reveal a shift in 1976 towards warmer and wetter conditions in the tropical Pacific, with widespread climatic and ecological consequences. This shift, unique over the past century, has prompted debate over the influence of increasing atmospheric concentrations of greenhouse gases on ENSO variability. Here we present a 155-year ENSO reconstruction from a central tropical Pacific coral that provides new evidence for long-term changes in the regional mean climate and its variability. A gradual transition in the early 20th century and the abrupt change in 1976, both towards warmer/wetter conditions, co-occur with changes in variability. In the mid-late 19th century, cooler/drier background conditions coincided with prominent decadal variability; in the early 20th century, shorter-period (~2.9 years) variability intensified. After 1920, variability weakens and becomes focused at interannual time scales; with the shift in 1976, variability with a period of about 4 years becomes prominent. Our results suggest that variability in the tropical Pacific is linked to the region's mean climate, and that changes in both have occurred during periods of natural as well as anthropogenic climate forcing.