Climate-induced variability in South Atlantic wave direction over the past three millennia

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Silva, AP
Klein, AHF
Fetter-Filho, AFH
Hein, CJ
Méndez, FJ
Broggio, MF
Dalinghaus, C
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2020
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Through alteration of wave-generating atmospheric systems, global climate changes play a fundamental role in regional wave climate. However, long-term wave-climate cycles and their associated forcing mechanisms remain poorly constrained, in part due to a relative dearth of highly resolved archives. Here we use the morphology of former shorelines preserved in beach-foredune ridges (BFR) within a protected embayment to reconstruct changes in predominant wave directions in the Subtropical South Atlantic during the last ~ 3000 years. These analyses reveal multi-centennial cycles of oscillation in predominant wave direction in accordance with stronger (weaker) South Atlantic mid- to high-latitudes mean sea-level pressure gradient and zonal westerly winds, favouring wave generation zones in higher (lower) latitudes and consequent southerly (easterly) wave components. We identify the Southern Annular Mode as the primary climate driver responsible for these changes. Long-term variations in interhemispheric surface temperature anomalies coexist with oscillations in wave direction, which indicates the influence of temperature-driven atmospheric teleconnections on wave-generation cycles. These results provide a novel geomorphic proxy for paleoenvironmental reconstructions and present new insights into the role of global multi-decadal to multi-centennial climate variability in controlling coastal-ocean wave climate.

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Scientific Reports

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10

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1

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© The Author(s) 2020. This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made.

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Physical oceanography

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Silva, AP; Klein, AHF; Fetter-Filho, AFH; Hein, CJ; Méndez, FJ; Broggio, MF; Dalinghaus, C, Climate-induced variability in South Atlantic wave direction over the past three millennia, Scientific Reports, 2020, 10 (1)

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