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1. Pacific Meridional Mode‐Western North Pacific Tropical Cyclone Linkage Explained by Tropical Pacific Quasi‐Decadal Variability

   https://doi.org/10.1029/2019GL085340  

   Liu, Chao ; Zhang, Wenjun ; Stuecker, Malte F. ; Jin, Fei‐Fei ( November 2019 , Geophysical Research Letters)

   Previous studies argued that the Pacific Meridional Mode (PMM) impacts tropical cyclone (TC) genesis variability over the southeastern part of the western North Pacific (SE‐WNP). Here, we find that the statistical relationship between PMM and SE‐WNP TC genesis frequency is dominated by their co‐variability on decadal timescales. The decadal component of the PMM exhibits very similar temporal and spatial features to quasi‐decadal tropical Pacific sea surface temperature (SST) variability. The latter can affect SE‐WNP TC activity via changes in both zonal vertical wind shear and low‐level vorticity. In contrast, the interannual component of the PMM exhibits no statistically significant correlation with SE‐WNP TC genesis. Furthermore, observations show that both interannual and decadal variability of SE‐WNP TC activity are well correlated with the commonly used Niño3.4 El Niño‐Southern Oscillation index. Thus, equatorial Pacific SST variability is the dominant source of SE‐WNP TC activity predictability on different timescales.

    

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2. Stable nitrogen and carbon isotope (δ15N and δ13C) variability in shallow tropical Pacific soft coral and black coral taxa and implications for paleoceanographic reconstructions

   https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gca.2010.06.026  

   Williams, Branwen ; Grottoli, Andréa G. ( September 2010 , Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta)

   null (Ed.)
3. Thermal stress jeopardizes carbonate production of coral reefs across the western and central Pacific Ocean

   https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0249008  

   van Woesik, Robert ; Cacciapaglia, Christopher William ( April 2021 , PLOS ONE)

   Guest, James R. (Ed.)

   Coral reefs protect islands, coastal areas, and their inhabitants from storm waves and provide essential goods and services to millions of people worldwide. Yet contemporary rates of ocean warming and local disturbances are jeopardizing the reef-building capacity of coral reefs to keep up with rapid rates of sea-level rise. This study compared the reef-building capacity of shallow-water habitats at 142 sites across a potential thermal-stress gradient in the tropical Pacific Ocean. We sought to determine the extent to which habitat differences and environmental variables potentially affect rates of net carbonate production. In general, outer-exposed reefs and lagoonal-patch reefs had higher rates of net carbonate production than nearshore reefs. The study found that thermal anomalies, particularly the intensity of thermal-stress events, play a significant role in reducing net carbonate production—evident as a diminishing trend of net carbonate production from the western to the central tropical Pacific Ocean. The results also showed a latent spatial effect along the same gradient, not explained by thermal stress, suggesting that reefs in the western tropical Pacific Ocean are potentially enhanced by the proximity of reefs in the Coral Triangle—an effect that diminishes with increasing distance and isolation. 

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4. Reconstructing the western boundary variability of the Western Pacific Subtropical High over the past 200 years via Chinese cave oxygen isotope records

   https://doi.org/10.1007/s00382-018-4456-0  

   Zhao, Jingyao ; Cheng, Hai ; Yang, Yan ; Tan, Liangcheng ; Spötl, Christoph ; Ning, Youfeng ; Zhang, Haiwei ; Cheng, Xing ; Sun, Zhe ; Li, Xianglei ; et al ( March 2019 , Climate Dynamics)
5. Indo-Western Pacific Climate Variability: ENSO Forcing and Internal Dynamics in a Tropical Pacific Pacemaker Simulation

   https://doi.org/10.1175/JCLI-D-18-0203.1  

   Wang, Chuan-Yang ; Xie, Shang-Ping ; Kosaka, Yu ( December 2018 , Journal of Climate)

   El Niño–Southern Oscillation (ENSO) peaks in boreal winter but its impact on Indo-western Pacific climate persists for another two seasons. Key ocean–atmosphere interaction processes for the ENSO effect are investigated using the Pacific Ocean–Global Atmosphere (POGA) experiment with a coupled general circulation model, where tropical Pacific sea surface temperature (SST) anomalies are restored to follow observations while the atmosphere and oceans are fully coupled elsewhere. The POGA shows skills in simulating the ENSO-forced warming of the tropical Indian Ocean and an anomalous anticyclonic circulation pattern over the northwestern tropical Pacific in the post–El Niño spring and summer. The 10-member POGA ensemble allows decomposing Indo-western Pacific variability into the ENSO forced and ENSO-unrelated (internal) components. Internal variability is comparable to the ENSO forcing in magnitude and independent of ENSO amplitude and phase. Random internal variability causes apparent decadal modulations of ENSO correlations over the Indo-western Pacific, which are high during epochs of high ENSO variance. This is broadly consistent with instrumental observations over the past 130 years as documented in recent studies. Internal variability features a sea level pressure pattern that extends into the north Indian Ocean and is associated with coherent SST anomalies from the Arabian Sea to the western Pacific, suggestive of ocean–atmosphere coupling.

    

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