Individual foraminifera variability from the western and eastern equatorial Pacific during the Late Holocene and Last Glacial Maximum

El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) is a major source of global interannual variability, but its response to climate change is uncertain. Paleoclimate records from the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) provide insight into ENSO behavior when global boundary conditions (ice sheet extent, atmospheric partial...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Ford, Heather L, Ravelo, Ana Christina, Polissar, Pratigya J
Format: Dataset
Language:English
Published: PANGAEA 2015
Subjects:
130-806A
138-849A
DRILL
Drilling/drill rig
Joides Resolution
Leg130
Leg138
North Pacific Ocean
Ocean Drilling Program
ODP
Pacific
Ice Sheet
Planktonic foraminifera
Online Access:https://doi.pangaea.de/10.1594/PANGAEA.841638
https://doi.org/10.1594/PANGAEA.841638
Description
Summary:El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) is a major source of global interannual variability, but its response to climate change is uncertain. Paleoclimate records from the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) provide insight into ENSO behavior when global boundary conditions (ice sheet extent, atmospheric partial pressure of CO2) were different from those today. In this work, we reconstruct LGM temperature variability at equatorial Pacific sites using measurements of individual planktonic foraminifera shells. A deep equatorial thermocline altered the dynamics in the eastern equatorial cold tongue, resulting in reduced ENSO variability during the LGM compared to the Late Holocene. These results suggest that ENSO was not tied directly to the east-west temperature gradient, as previously suggested. Rather, the thermocline of the eastern equatorial Pacific played a decisive role in the ENSO response to LGM climate.

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