Temperature Calibration of Siderastrea siderea coral from the Flower Garden Banks National Marine Sanctuary

Alyssa Gorenflo, California State University Sacramento, Physics and Astronomy, Sacramento, CA, United States, Amy J Wagner, California State University, Sacramento, Sacramento, United States, Kristine L DeLong, Louisiana State University, Department of Geography and Anthropology, Baton Rouge, LA, United States and Niall C. Slowey, Texas A&M University, Oceanography, College Station, Texas, United States
Abstract:
The Gulf of Mexico (GOM) is highly sensitive to oceanic and atmospheric variability in the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. The Loop Current supplies the north Atlantic Ocean large amounts of oceanic heat via the GOM and Gulf Stream and drives oceanic moisture and precipitation into the Americas. Decadally-resolved foraminifera reconstructions from the northern GOM indicate sea surface temperatures were 2-4°C cooler on average than they are today during the Little Ice Age (LIA, ~1850 CE). Coral reconstructions from the southeastern GOM find temperatures during the LIA to only be 1.5-2°C cooler than present. Here we present a new temperature calibration for a Siderastrea siderea from the Flower Garden Banks National Marine Sanctuary (FGBNMS; 27° 52.5’N, 93° 49’W) in the northern GOM. Approximately monthly coral Strontium-to-calcium (Sr/Ca) data from 1960-2005 are calibrated to in-situ and satellite GOM temperature data. Paired d18O and pseudocoral analysis is used to assess the relationship between SST and salinity at the sampling site.
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