This award funds the development of multi-century and sub-annual coral-based time series of climate variability from Easter Island, Chile. Easter Island is sited beneath the descending limb of the Pacific Cell; an area that shows pronounced decadal climate variability. It is also located with a section of the South Pacific Gyre that acts as a source for shallow subsurface meridional flow at the southeastern most section of the South Pacific Convergence Zone. These factors, when combined, are thought to support the production of time series of sea surface temperature over the past 300 years from the southeastern Pacific.
The research aims to fill a gap for data from an important region of the world that can be used to develop a better understanding of climate, ecosystems, and sea surface interactions and feedbacks. The researchers and their graduate students will work closely with colleagues at the Universidad de Chile and the Universidad de Concepcion to interpret the developing Easter Island data set and to enable Chilean students to participate in exchange visits at Stanford University.
