Monsoon-induced sea surface temperature changes recorded in Indian corals

Abstract

The South Asian Summer Monsoon induces vertical mixing in the surface Arabian Sea, leading to a reduction in the Sea Surface Temperature (SST) of the order of 3-4°C. This reduction in temperature is recorded by modern corals (Porites) that grow in the Lakshadweep Islands (coralline islands located at about 350 km off the south-west coast of India) in their stable oxygen isotope ratios (denoted by δ¹⁸O). As large coral colonies of this genus are available, our results show that palaeomonsoon records for a few centuries back in time, a crucial input for climatic models aimed at predicting the Asian Monsoon, can be obtained from these corals. We also show that two corals separated by ~60 km show similar (δ¹⁸O variations as does a giant clam (Tridacna maximus) that grew near one end of the coral colonies. As this clam is known to precipitate CaCO₃ in isotopic equilibrium with the ambient sea-water, it is possible to estimate the isotopic offset of coralline δ¹⁸O from that of the CaCO₃ precipitated in isotopic equilibrium. This 'disequilibrium effect' appears to be constant around 4.5 ± 0.2%0. Our calculations show that SST (t, °C) is related to the coral δ¹⁸O (δ_c) and the sea-water δ¹⁸O (δ_w) by the equation t = 3.0-4.68 (δ_c −δ_w), which is in good agreement with such relationships for corals from the Pacific and Atlantic.