Franziska A. Lechleitner
Tropical rainfall over the last two millennia: evidence for a low-latitude hydrologic seesaw
Lechleitner, Franziska A.; Breitenbach, Sebastian F.M.; Rehfeld, Kira; Ridley, Harriet E.; Asmerom, Yemane; Prufer, Keith M.; Marwan, Norbert; Goswami, Bedartha; Kennett, Douglas J.; Aquino, Valorie V.; Polyak, Victor; Haug, Gerald H.; Eglinton, Timothy I.; Baldini, James U.L
Authors
Sebastian F.M. Breitenbach
Kira Rehfeld
Harriet E. Ridley
Yemane Asmerom
Keith M. Prufer
Norbert Marwan
Bedartha Goswami
Douglas J. Kennett
Valorie V. Aquino
Victor Polyak
Gerald H. Haug
Timothy I. Eglinton
Professor James Baldini james.baldini@durham.ac.uk
Professor
Abstract
The presence of a low- to mid-latitude interhemispheric hydrologic seesaw is apparent over orbital and glacial-interglacial timescales, but its existence over the most recent past remains unclear. Here we investigate, based on climate proxy reconstructions from both hemispheres, the inter-hemispherical phasing of the Intertropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ) and the low- to mid-latitude teleconnections in the Northern Hemisphere over the past 2000 years. A clear feature is a persistent southward shift of the ITCZ during the Little Ice Age until the beginning of the 19th Century. Strong covariation between our new composite ITCZ-stack and North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) records reveals a tight coupling between these two synoptic weather and climate phenomena over decadal-to-centennial timescales. This relationship becomes most apparent when comparing two precisely dated, high-resolution paleorainfall records from Belize and Scotland, indicating that the low- to mid-latitude teleconnection was also active over annual-decadal timescales. It is likely a combination of external forcing, i.e., solar and volcanic, and internal feedbacks, that drives the synchronous ITCZ and NAO shifts via energy flux perturbations in the tropics.
Citation
Lechleitner, F. A., Breitenbach, S. F., Rehfeld, K., Ridley, H. E., Asmerom, Y., Prufer, K. M., …Baldini, J. U. (2017). Tropical rainfall over the last two millennia: evidence for a low-latitude hydrologic seesaw. Scientific Reports, 7, Article 45809. https://doi.org/10.1038/srep45809
Journal Article Type | Article |
---|---|
Acceptance Date | Mar 6, 2017 |
Online Publication Date | Apr 5, 2017 |
Publication Date | Apr 5, 2017 |
Deposit Date | Apr 5, 2017 |
Publicly Available Date | Apr 13, 2017 |
Journal | Scientific Reports |
Publisher | Nature Research |
Peer Reviewed | Peer Reviewed |
Volume | 7 |
Article Number | 45809 |
DOI | https://doi.org/10.1038/srep45809 |
Public URL | https://durham-repository.worktribe.com/output/1389629 |
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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in the credit line; if the material is not included under the Creative Commons license, users will need to obtain permission from the license holder to reproduce the material. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
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