Evidence of Multidecadal Salinity Variability in the Eastern Tropical North Atlantic
Ocean circulation and global climate are strongly influenced by seawater density, which is itself controlled by salinity and temperature. Although adequate instrumental sea surface temperature (SST) records exist for most of the surface oceans over the past 100–150 years, records of salinity really...
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ftunisfloridatam:oai:digitalcommons.usf.edu:msc_facpub-3425 2023-05-15T17:25:33+02:00 Evidence of Multidecadal Salinity Variability in the Eastern Tropical North Atlantic Moses, Christopher S. Swart, Peter K. Rosenheim, Brad E. 2006-01-01T08:00:00Z application/pdf https://digitalcommons.usf.edu/msc_facpub/2412 https://digitalcommons.usf.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=3425&context=msc_facpub unknown Digital Commons @ University of South Florida https://digitalcommons.usf.edu/msc_facpub/2412 https://digitalcommons.usf.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=3425&context=msc_facpub default Marine Science Faculty Publications salinity tropical North Atlantic North Atlantic Oscillation Life Sciences article 2006 ftunisfloridatam 2022-04-07T17:43:04Z Ocean circulation and global climate are strongly influenced by seawater density, which is itself controlled by salinity and temperature. Although adequate instrumental sea surface temperature (SST) records exist for most of the surface oceans over the past 100–150 years, records of salinity really only exist for the last 40–50 years. Here we show that longer proxy records from corals (Siderastrea radians) in the eastern tropical North Atlantic are dominated by multidecadal variations in salinity which are correlated with the relationship between SST and the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) over the course of the 20th century. The data reveal an increase in eastern tropical North Atlantic salinity of +0.5 practical salinity units (psu) between about 1950 and 1990. Rather than a monotonic secular increase, as indicated by some instrumental records, the preinstrumental coral proxy records presented here suggest that salinity in the tropical North Atlantic is periodic on a decadal to multidecadal scale. Article in Journal/Newspaper North Atlantic North Atlantic oscillation Digital Commons University of South Florida (USF) |
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Open Polar |
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Digital Commons University of South Florida (USF) |
op_collection_id |
ftunisfloridatam |
language |
unknown |
topic |
salinity tropical North Atlantic North Atlantic Oscillation Life Sciences |
spellingShingle |
salinity tropical North Atlantic North Atlantic Oscillation Life Sciences Moses, Christopher S. Swart, Peter K. Rosenheim, Brad E. Evidence of Multidecadal Salinity Variability in the Eastern Tropical North Atlantic |
topic_facet |
salinity tropical North Atlantic North Atlantic Oscillation Life Sciences |
description |
Ocean circulation and global climate are strongly influenced by seawater density, which is itself controlled by salinity and temperature. Although adequate instrumental sea surface temperature (SST) records exist for most of the surface oceans over the past 100–150 years, records of salinity really only exist for the last 40–50 years. Here we show that longer proxy records from corals (Siderastrea radians) in the eastern tropical North Atlantic are dominated by multidecadal variations in salinity which are correlated with the relationship between SST and the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) over the course of the 20th century. The data reveal an increase in eastern tropical North Atlantic salinity of +0.5 practical salinity units (psu) between about 1950 and 1990. Rather than a monotonic secular increase, as indicated by some instrumental records, the preinstrumental coral proxy records presented here suggest that salinity in the tropical North Atlantic is periodic on a decadal to multidecadal scale. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Moses, Christopher S. Swart, Peter K. Rosenheim, Brad E. |
author_facet |
Moses, Christopher S. Swart, Peter K. Rosenheim, Brad E. |
author_sort |
Moses, Christopher S. |
title |
Evidence of Multidecadal Salinity Variability in the Eastern Tropical North Atlantic |
title_short |
Evidence of Multidecadal Salinity Variability in the Eastern Tropical North Atlantic |
title_full |
Evidence of Multidecadal Salinity Variability in the Eastern Tropical North Atlantic |
title_fullStr |
Evidence of Multidecadal Salinity Variability in the Eastern Tropical North Atlantic |
title_full_unstemmed |
Evidence of Multidecadal Salinity Variability in the Eastern Tropical North Atlantic |
title_sort |
evidence of multidecadal salinity variability in the eastern tropical north atlantic |
publisher |
Digital Commons @ University of South Florida |
publishDate |
2006 |
url |
https://digitalcommons.usf.edu/msc_facpub/2412 https://digitalcommons.usf.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=3425&context=msc_facpub |
genre |
North Atlantic North Atlantic oscillation |
genre_facet |
North Atlantic North Atlantic oscillation |
op_source |
Marine Science Faculty Publications |
op_relation |
https://digitalcommons.usf.edu/msc_facpub/2412 https://digitalcommons.usf.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=3425&context=msc_facpub |
op_rights |
default |
_version_ |
1766117012652687360 |