14 DAY TRIAL // A team of investigators was recently able to determine that long-term weather patterns for northern Australia can be derived from analysis work conducted on coral reef growth rings.
The discovery also brings some bad news – the torrential rains that the country was subjected to during these past few weeks are not an isolated occurrence, and their frequency is bound to increase in the coming years.
While investigating coral reefs in Australia – and the threats they are subjected to – researchers noticed that the growth rings inside these complex structures could provide a wealth of data about the climate in the region over the past century or so.
As such, the scientists were able to develop a centuries-long rainfall record for northern Australia, that is bound to help authorities plan for future disasters. At least now they will know torrential rains of the magnitude witnessed recently are no longer the exception, but about to become the norm.
“This reconstruction provides a new insight into rainfall in northeast Queensland,” explains the author of the new study, Australian Institute of Marine Science expert Janice Loug. The AIMS is located in Queensland, Australia.
“These coral samples, which date from 1639 to 1981, suggest that the summer of 1973 to 1974 was the wettest in 300 years. This summer is now being compared with that record-setting one,” she adds, quoted by Our Amazing Planet.
It is important to note here that summer in the Southern Hemisphere lasts between December and February. Cyclone Yasi, which recently devastated Queensland, occurred during the winter.
According to the new data derived from the coral record, Australia may be in for even more extreme weather. The intensity of atmospheric manifestations is expected to increase in the near future.
Data secured from growth rings indicated that wet years occur on average every 12 years or so, whereas dry years occur every 9 years. But these intervals are not set in stone, as they can varry over the centuries.
They can grow significantly, coral data reveal. For example, more than a century ago, very wet years occurred once every 25 years, and very dry years every 14 years or so. Between 1885 and 1981, the extremes changed – wet years every 3 years and dry years every 7.5 years.
In a new paper to be published in an upcoming issue of the esteemed journal Paleoceanography, experts say that data on the effects of the El Niño-Southern Oscillation also seem to corroborate the findings made in the Australian corals.