NOAA/WDS Paleoclimatology - Okinawa Fossil Coral Geochemical Data at 4.4ka and 4.9ka

We first generated 53-yr, 4-yr, 10-yr, and 9-yr-long bimonthly time series of oxygen isotopes (d18O), Sr/Ca, and U/Ca from 4.4 and 4.9 ka corals in Okinawa, Japan. Results indicate that the mid-Holocene sea surface temperature (SST) and seawater d18O were <1 °C lower and 0.1-0.2 ‰ higher than today. Spectral analyses of reconstructed SST and seawater d18O time series revealed East Asia monsoon (EAM) and El Niño/Southern Oscillation (ENSO) variations. Moreover, the latter had a dominant component of decade-scale hydrologic variations. The Sr/Ca and U/Ca variations with removal of the ENSO component showed larger fluctuations by ~2 °C in winter and ~0.6 °C in summer at 4.4 ka relative to today, demonstrating (slightly) greater influences of the EAM variation on the northwestern subtropical Pacific in winter (summer) at that time, which are probably caused by enhancement of the EAM intensity and/or a southward migration of the latitudinal circulation.