Coral growth bands reflect Pacific Ocean climate swings

The University of Queensland

13 January 2014

University of Queensland researchers have found physical evidence in Great Barrier Reef corals of a little-known, long-term climate pattern in the Pacific Ocean.

The Pacific Decadal Oscillation – discovered and named only in the 1990s – describes phases of warm and cool sea surface temperatures that alternate between the Pacific Ocean’s east and west, usually over periods of 20 to 30 years. Read more