TY - JOUR
T1 - Environmental records from coral skeletons
T2 - A decade of novel insights and innovation
AU - Thompson, Diane M.
N1 - Funding Information:
informationThis work was supported by NSF (OCE-1931242, OCE-1945479).First and foremost, the author thanks the editor for the invitation to contribute this advanced review, and opportunity to reflect on the many innovations of the coral paleoclimate community over the past decade. The author respectfully acknowledges that this review was written at the University of Arizona, which is situated on the land and territories of the Tohono O'odham and the Yaqui. The author thanks Emma Reed for the polyp artwork in Figure 4, and Nerilie Abram for sharing processed data with which to reproduce and highlight her work in Figure 3. The author is also grateful for expert feedback from the editors, anonymous reviewers, Emma Reed, Julia Cole, Gabriela Farfan, Bryan Black, and Kaustubh Thirumalai on the manuscript, and for continuous support and feedback from Marcus Lofverstrom throughout the process. Finally, the author wishes to thank the entire coral paleoclimate community for stimulating and nurturing my curiosity. The author is especially grateful for the mentorship and support offered by the “Coral Ladies,” particularly Kristine DeLong and Branwen Williams.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2021 The Author. WIREs Climate Change published by Wiley Periodicals LLC.
PY - 2022/1/1
Y1 - 2022/1/1
N2 - Hundreds of coral paleoclimate records have been developed over the past several decades, significantly extending the instrumental record and improving our understanding of tropical climate variability and change in otherwise data-poor regions. Coral “proxy” records measure the change in skeletal geochemistry or growth as a function of ocean conditions at the time of calcification. Over the past decade (since 2010), new syntheses have identified coherent patterns of warming and variability that are unique within the paleo record (albeit not yet unprecedented). In turn, ocean warming and acidification have had a detrimental impact on coral growth, with reduced extension and increased stress banding. Methodological advances have constrained uncertainties and improved our understanding of the processes by which climate information is archived in coral skeletons. Models that describe these processes have been developed to facilitate proxy-model comparisons, identify sources of uncertainties, and provide a benchmark upon which forced changes may be detected within a highly variable climate system. Finally, several innovative new proxies have expanded the climate and environmental information that may be obtained from corals, including: seawater pH, aragonite saturation, anthropogenic nitrogen, runoff, and trade winds. Further extending established and novel proxies should remain a priority, along with seawater monitoring and density measurements with which to screen and calibrate these records. As this critical climate archive is increasingly threatened by warming and ocean acidification, the community must work closely together to collect this invaluable climate data in an ecologically and culturally sensitive manner, before it is too late. This article is categorized under: Paleoclimates and Current Trends > Paleoclimate.
AB - Hundreds of coral paleoclimate records have been developed over the past several decades, significantly extending the instrumental record and improving our understanding of tropical climate variability and change in otherwise data-poor regions. Coral “proxy” records measure the change in skeletal geochemistry or growth as a function of ocean conditions at the time of calcification. Over the past decade (since 2010), new syntheses have identified coherent patterns of warming and variability that are unique within the paleo record (albeit not yet unprecedented). In turn, ocean warming and acidification have had a detrimental impact on coral growth, with reduced extension and increased stress banding. Methodological advances have constrained uncertainties and improved our understanding of the processes by which climate information is archived in coral skeletons. Models that describe these processes have been developed to facilitate proxy-model comparisons, identify sources of uncertainties, and provide a benchmark upon which forced changes may be detected within a highly variable climate system. Finally, several innovative new proxies have expanded the climate and environmental information that may be obtained from corals, including: seawater pH, aragonite saturation, anthropogenic nitrogen, runoff, and trade winds. Further extending established and novel proxies should remain a priority, along with seawater monitoring and density measurements with which to screen and calibrate these records. As this critical climate archive is increasingly threatened by warming and ocean acidification, the community must work closely together to collect this invaluable climate data in an ecologically and culturally sensitive manner, before it is too late. This article is categorized under: Paleoclimates and Current Trends > Paleoclimate.
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U2 - 10.1002/wcc.745
DO - 10.1002/wcc.745
M3 - Review article
AN - SCOPUS:85118126203
SN - 1757-7780
VL - 13
JO - Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: Climate Change
JF - Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: Climate Change
IS - 1
M1 - e745
ER -