Corals record long-term Leeuwin current variability including Ningaloo Niño/Niña since 1795
Open accessAbstract
Variability of the Leeuwin current (LC) off Western Australia is a footprint of interannual and decadal climate variations in the tropical Indo-Pacific. La Niña events often result in a strengthened LC, high coastal sea levels and unusually warm sea surface temperatures (SSTs), termed Ningaloo Niño. The rarity of such extreme events and the response of the southeastern Indian Ocean to regional and remote climate forcing are poorly understood owing to the lack of long-term records. Here we use well-replicated coral SST records from within the path of the LC, together with a reconstruction of the El Niño-Southern Oscillation to hindcast historical SST and LC strength from 1795 to 2010. We show that interannual and decadal variations in SST and LC strength characterized the past 215 years and that the most extreme sea level and SST anomalies occurred post 1980. These recent events were unprecedented in severity and are likely aided by accelerated global ocean warming and sea-level rise. El Niño Southern Oscillation has a strong impact on current strength and ocean temperatures off the western Australian coast, but long-term variability is poorly understood. Zinke et al.show a strong link between La Niña and El Niño events and decadal Leeuwin current variability in coral records since 1795.
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Paleo proxies and traditional ecological data can, at best, only provide quantitative information on long-lived MHWs.
“While useful for other purposes, paleo proxies and traditional ecological data can, at best, only provide quantitative information on long-lived MHWs (e.g. Zinke et al. 2014).”
From A hierarchical approach to defining marine heatwaves (2016) · cites this paper as Zinke et al. 2014
The Results (‘Coral paleoclimatic records’) and Methods (‘Proxy data treatment’; page unavailable) describe coral proxies used to quantify annually resolved sea-surface-temperature variability, including warm anomalies. The paper does not establish that paleo proxies can quantify only long-lived marine heatwaves, and it does not assess the limits of traditional ecological data. (LLM, conf=0.83)
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Cites
Interdecadal modulation of El Niño amplitude during the past millennium
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Self-citationPaul, D., & Skrzypek, G. (2006) · Rapid Communications in Mass Spectrometry · doi:10.1002/rcm.2559 · Cited by 70 · see citing works
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A hierarchical approach to defining marine heatwaves
Hobday, A. J., Alexander, L. V., Perkins, S. E., Smale, D. A., Straub, S. C., Oliver, E. C. J., Benthuysen, J. A., Burrows, M. T., Donat, M. G., Feng, M., et al. (2016) · Progress in Oceanography · doi:10.1016/j.pocean.2015.12.014 · Cited by 2,377 · see citing works
- Authors
- Zinke, J., Rountrey, A., Feng, M., Xie, S.-P., Dissard, D., Rankenburg, K., Lough, J. M., & McCulloch, M. T.
- Affiliations
- Australian Institute of Marine Science (AU)
- The University of Western Australia (AU)
- CSIRO Oceans and Atmosphere (AU)
- Scripps Institution of Oceanography (US)
- Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (FR)
- Corresponding author
- Zinke, J.
- Venue
- Nature Communications
- Published
- 2014-04-01
- Volume
- 5
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 3607-3607
- ISSN
- 2041-1723 (ISSN-L)
- PMC
- PMC3988812
- OpenAlex
- W2029742708
- Cited by
- 111
- References
- 2
- Citations by year
- 2026: 6 · 2025: 3 · 2024: 8 · 2023: 10 · 2022: 8 · 2021: 12 · 2020: 7 · 2019: 8 · 2018: 10 · 2017: 13 · 2016: 8 · 2015: 12 · 2014: 6
- FWCI
- 10.74
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- hybrid
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- Nature Communications (publishedVersion, cc-by-nc-sa)
- Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (publishedVersion, cc-by-nc-sa)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by-nc-sa)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- UWA Profiles and Research Repository (UWA) (submittedVersion, other-oa)
- HAL (submittedVersion, other-oa)
- RePEc: Research Papers in Economics (submittedVersion)
- eScholarship (California Digital Library) (submittedVersion)
- eScholarship (California Digital Library) (submittedVersion, cc-by-nc-sa)
- eSpace (Curtin University) (submittedVersion, cc-by-nc-sa)
- Figshare (submittedVersion)
- Funders
- Australian Institute of Marine Science
- Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation
- Australian Research Council (DP0986505)
- Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies, Australian Research Council
- Topics
- Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Global and Planetary Change › Climate variability and models
- Physical Sciences › Earth and Planetary Sciences › Atmospheric Science › Geology and Paleoclimatology Research
- Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Ecology › Coral and Marine Ecosystems Studies
- Keywords
- Leeuwin Current, ENSO, La Niña, decadal variability, interannual climate variability, sea level anomalies, ocean warming, sea level rise, hindcasting, Western Australian coast, southeastern Indian Ocean
- MeSH terms
- Animals, Oceanography, Seawater, Temperature, Water Movements, Western Australia, Anthozoa, History, 18th Century, History, 19th Century, History, 20th Century, History, 21st Century, Global Warming, El Nino-Southern Oscillation
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