Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
The Gulf of Alaska and southern Andes reconstructions clearly show the well-
documented transition from cold to warm conditions over the tropical Pacific in
1976 and are consistent with regional temperature compilations. This result reflects
a comparable sensitivity of the temperature records to SST changes in the Pacific
Ocean during recent decades. If decadal timescale variations in climate forced by
the tropical Pacific had also affected temperature changes in the past, tree-ring-based
reconstructions of temperature along the coast of North and South America should
present similar oscillatory patterns. Indeed, for the common interval 1640-1989,
reconstructed temperature variations from the Gulf of Alaska are significantly cor-
related with those of northern (
r
=
<
0.42,
p
(
r
0.01). Spatial patterns obtained by correlating the Alaska and north-
ern Patagonia temperature reconstructions with SSTs across the Pacific and Atlantic
=
0.38,
p
<
Fig. 7.5
This figure compares temperature-sensitive tree-ring records (
red triangles
) from high-
latitude, western North and South America with a geochemical coral record (
yellow triangle
)from
Raratonga, in the tropical South Pacific during the past three to four centuries. The series shown
from top to bottom are: spring/summer Gulf of Alaska temperature reconstruction (1600-1994;
Wiles et al.
1998
)
, Sr/Ca coral record from Rarotonga (1726-1996; Linsley et al.
2004
)
, and annual
northern Patagonia temperature reconstruction (1641-1989; Villalba et al.
2003
)
. Correlation coef-
ficients between records are indicated. To facilitate the comparison, the Sr/Ca coral record is shown
inverted
