DATA ANALYSIS OF CORALGROWTH IN THE PACIFIC AND ITS RELATION TO CLIMATE

• Main Author: Tozer, Victoria Emily
• Other Authors: Cole, Julia
• Language: en_US
• Published: The University of Arizona. 2016
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10150/613731; http://arizona.openrepository.com/arizona/handle/10150/613731

Fourteen individual coral cores from the Pacific and Indian Ocean were evaluated for their relation to climate and proxy indicators (δ18Ο and Sr/Ca). Annual growth rates were calculated for each core and annual averages were calculated for proxy data. The correlation between annual growth rate and each parameter: sea surface temperature anomalies, ENSO anomalies, and proxy data was calculated. Fifty seven percent of correlation values correspond to negative correlation indicating slow growth with warm temperatures in just over half of the data. Only fifteen percent of all correlation values (negative and positive) for sea surface temperature and ENSO anomalies are statistically significant. Due to the absence of any significant trends in coral growth and temperatures it cannot be assumed that corals are affected by warmer ocean temperatures. There is a relatively strong positive trend in Sr/Ca with coral growth, which may indicate an increase in growth with increasing ocean temperatures, however, further analysis would have to be conducted to examine this relationship.