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Lachniet et al. 2004
Lachniet, M.S., Burns, S.J., Piperno, D.R., Asmerom, Y., Polyak, V.J., Moy, C.M. and Christenson, K. (2004). A 1500-year El Niño/Southern Oscillation and rainfall history for the Isthmus of Panama from speleothem calcite. Journal of Geophysical Research 109: doi: 10.1029/2004JD004694. issn: 0148-0227.

The effect of the El Ni¿o/Southern Oscillation (ENSO) on tropical rainfall variations of the past 2 millennia is largely unknown. High-resolution monsoon records are sparse, despite the role of ENSO in generating global hydrologic anomalies in modern climate. To investigate the relationship between ENSO and the Central American Monsoon, we generated a high-resolution (~2.9 years/sample) oxygen-isotope monsoon rainfall record from a U/Th-dated stalagmite (180 B.C. to 1310 A.D.) from the Isthmus of Panama. We present evidence for a weakened monsoon during the High Medieval (1100--1200 A.D.) and the Classic Maya Collapse (750--950 A.D.). Rainfall decreased and was more variable after 550 A.D., and the period 900--1310 A.D. was drier than the preceding millennium. A weaker monsoon corresponds with increased El Ni¿o variability, and our data display statistical variance in the ENSO band. We conclude that ENSO variation has forced isthmian rainfall and may have contributed to hemispheric climatic anomalies at this time.

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Abstract

Keywords
Geochemistry, Isotopic composition/chemistry, Global Change, Climate dynamics, Hydrology, Precipitation, Meteorology and Atmospheric Dynamics, Paleoclimatology, Meteorology and Atmospheric Dynamics, Ocean/atmosphere interactions (0312, 4504), paleoclimate, El Niño/Southern Oscillation, speleothem, Medieval Climatic Anomaly, Intertropical Convergence Zone, Panama
Journal
Journal of Geophysical Research
http://www.agu.org/journals/jb/
Publisher
American Geophysical Union
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