Coral Check-Up

Scuba-diving scientists drilled to collect cores from coral growing on a reef in Indonesia. The chemistry of coral skeletons preserves a detailed record of past sea temperatures and rainfall. They found a link between an oscillation in ocean temperatures and Asian monsoons, or the seasonal reversals of wind direction caused by temperature differences between the land and sea.

Scientists, led by Nerilie Abram of the Australian National University, used coral records, to reconstruct an oscillating pattern of ocean temperatures in the Indian Ocean, called the Indian Ocean Dipole (IOD), over the past 6,500 years. The record included times when the Asian monsoon behaved much differently compared with the present.

They found a relationship between the Asian monsoons and the IOD. The IOD has profound impacts on rainfall throughout the tropical Indian Ocean region, but its interactions with the Asian monsoon system have been unclear. The findings, detailed in the Jan. 18 issue of the journal Nature, suggest that future Asian monsoons could have more widespread and intense consequences than previously forecast.

-- LiveScience Staff

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Credit: S. Fallon