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ITCZ rather than ENSO signature for abrupt climate changes across the tropical Pacific?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Guillaume Leduc ,
Laurence Vidal ,
Kazuyo Tachikawa  and
Edouard Bard
Guillaume Leduc*
Affiliation:
CEREGE, Aix-Marseille Université, CNRS, Collège de France, IRD, Europôle Méditerranéen de L'Arbois, BP 80, 13545 Aix en Provence, France
Laurence Vidal
Affiliation:
CEREGE, Aix-Marseille Université, CNRS, Collège de France, IRD, Europôle Méditerranéen de L'Arbois, BP 80, 13545 Aix en Provence, France
Kazuyo Tachikawa
Affiliation:
CEREGE, Aix-Marseille Université, CNRS, Collège de France, IRD, Europôle Méditerranéen de L'Arbois, BP 80, 13545 Aix en Provence, France
Edouard Bard
Affiliation:
CEREGE, Aix-Marseille Université, CNRS, Collège de France, IRD, Europôle Méditerranéen de L'Arbois, BP 80, 13545 Aix en Provence, France
*
⁎Corresponding author. Institute of Earth Sciences, Geology Department, Kiel University, Ludewig-Meyn-Str. 10, D-24118 Kiel, Germany.

E-mail address:gl@gpi.uni-kiel.de (G. Leduc).

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Abstract

Latitudinal movements of the Intertropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ), analogous to its present-day seasonal shifts, and El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO)-type variability both potentially impacted rainfall changes at the millennial timescale during the last glacial period. In this study we compare tropical Pacific sedimentary records of paleoprecipitation to decipher which climate mechanism was responsible for the past rainfall changes. We find that latitudinal movements of the ITCZ are consistent with the observed rainfall patterns, challenging the ENSO hypothesis for explaining the rapid rainfall changes at low latitudes. The ITCZ-related mechanism appears to reflect large-scale atmospheric rearrangements over the tropical belt, with a pronounced Heinrich–Dansgaard/Oeschger signature. This observation is coherent with the simulated tropical rainfall anomalies induced by a weakening of the Atlantic thermohaline circulation in modeling experiments.

Keywords

Rapid climate changesHydrological cycleTropical PacificEl-Niño/Southern OscillationIntertropical Convergence Zone
Type
Research Article
Information
Quaternary Research , Volume 72 , Issue 1 , July 2009 , pp. 123 - 131
Copyright
University of Washington

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