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Understanding The Relationship Between Winter Hawaii Precipitation And North Pacific Climate Variability For Past And Present Climate Conditions, Siyu Li
Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)
Kona lows (KLs) are a type of seasonal cut-off cyclones in the North Pacific around the Hawaiian Islands during the cold season month (Oct.-Apr.). KLs are important for the annual rainfall budget of the Hawaiian Islands. This study investigates what controls the winter precipitation variability over the Hawaiian Islands in the present-day climate and within a long-term paleoclimate simulation. ERA-interim data from 1979-2014 are used for the present-day analysis of the large-scale circulation. The potential vorticity is used as a measure of extratropical synoptic activity. The Hawaii Rainfall Index is from the Rainfall Atlas of Hawaii (seasonal means, 1920-2012). For …
Assessing Delta Oxygen-18 In The Coral Genus Isopora For Reconstructing Indo-Pacific Regional And Seasonal Climate, Gavin Lemley
Assessing Delta Oxygen-18 In The Coral Genus Isopora For Reconstructing Indo-Pacific Regional And Seasonal Climate, Gavin Lemley
Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)
Paleoclimate reconstructions often utilize coral reefs with very long time spans such as the genus Porites and Diploastrea, because of their potential to provide centuries of continuous climate records via geochemical signatures. Smaller corals, such as the genus Isopora, have been essentially unexplored as climate archives because their small skeletons (<1 m) and short lifespans (years to decades) do not provide such continuous geochemical records. There has not been a practical application for such corals until recently. In early 2010, the Integrated Ocean Drilling Program Leg 325 (IODP-325) cored drowned fossil reefs off the Great Barrier Reef (GBR) with the objectives of reconstructing sea level and surface ocean conditions since the Last Glacial Maximum. Out of 213 massive fossil corals that were recovered, most were massive Isoporan colonies. A 30-specimen subset of these fossils range in age from ~32,000 to ~11,500 years before present with even temporal spacing, based on preliminary U/Th dating of core catcher samples. This age distribution is excellent for meeting IODP-325 objectives, but the suitability of Isopora for paleoclimate analyses remains unknown.