Holocene coral records: Windows on tropical climate variability

Corals provide palaeoclimatic information on the behaviour of the tropical oceans that is available from no other proxy. They allow accurate dating by several means, and they incorporate geochemical tracers of climate that are relatively simple to measure to produce high-quality climate records. Records may span centuries at monthly to annual resolution, or they may provide shorter high-resolution windows into the deeper past. They have been most useful in the tropical Pacific and Indian Oceans, where a collection of c. 20 records is now available. This paper summarizes the methods used in coral palaeoclimate work and describes a selection of Holocene palaeoclimate applications where corals have made significant contributions.