Ningaloo Reef Coral Stable Isotope Data: Readme file
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                   NOAA Paleoclimatology Program
                               and
              World Data Center for Paleoclimatology
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NOTE: PLEASE CITE ORIGINAL REFERENCE WHEN USING THIS DATA!!!!!


NAME OF DATA SET: Ningaloo Reef Coral Stable Isotope Data
LAST UPDATE: 11/2001 (Original Receipt by WDCA Paleo)  

CONTRIBUTORS: Henning Kuhnert, Jürgen Pätzold, Gerold Wefer:
Fachbereich Geowissenschaften, Universitaet Bremen, Bremen, Germany;
Karl-Heinz Wyrwoll: Department of Geology and Geography, University of
Western Australia, Nedlands, Australia.

IGBP PAGES/WDCA CONTRIBUTION SERIES NUMBER: 2001-080

SUGGESTED DATA CITATION: Kuhnert, H., et al, 2001, 
Ningaloo Reef Coral Stable Isotope Data, IGBP PAGES/World Data 
Center A-Paleoclimatology Data Contribution Series #2001-080. 
NOAA/NGDC Paleoclimatology Program, Boulder CO, USA. 

ORIGINAL REFERENCE: Kuhnert H, Pätzold J, Wyrwoll K-H, Wefer G (2000):
Monitoring climate variability over the past 116 years in coral oxygen
isotopes from Ningaloo Reef, Western Australia.
Int. J. Earth Sci., 88, 725-732


GEOGRAPHIC REGION: Subtropical eastern Indian Ocean, Ningaloo Reef,
west Australia

LONGITUDE: 113°57.9'E
LATITUDE: 21°54.3'S
WATER DEPTH: 3 m
CORAL SPECIES: Porites lutea
USED CORE LENGTH: 1.44 m, covering the period 1878-1994 A.D.
(Complete core length: 3 m, lower portion was not investigated due to
presence of inorganic aragonite)
DATE OF COLLECTION: May 1995


PERIOD OF RECORD:  1878-1994 A.D

FUNDING SOURCES: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (Ma 821/11-1)

LIST OF FILES: readme_ningaloo.txt (this file), ningaloo.txt (data)
FILE FORMAT: ASCII, 7 columns, TAB-delimited, end of line: CR LF (DOS-text)

DESCRIPTION: 
The data set contains d18O and d13C in bimonthly temporal resolution 
for the time period 1878-1994. The material consists of a vertical core from 
a colony of Porites lutea. Samples for isotopic analyses were taken using a 
low-speed dental drill. Untreated samples were measured on a Finnigan MAT 251 
mass spectrometer.  The age model in the data set is based on the density banding 
of the skeleton and the seasonality in d18O.

A 116-year record of coral skeletal d18O is presented from a colony of 
Porites lutea from Ningaloo Reef, west Australia. Interannual variability of 
sea surface temperatures (SST) inferred from skeletal d18O is dominated by a 
9.5-year period, and may constitute a characteristic signal of the Leeuwin Current. 
On long-terms coral skeletal d18O indicates a near-continuous increase of sea surface 
temperatures at Ningaloo Reef over one century. The skeletal d18O time series 
was checked for the presence of seasonal cooling events resulting from major 
volcanic eruptions. A ~1° C cooling is evident following the eruption of 
Pinatubo in 1991, which reproduces the results of earlier investigations. 
However, only weak or no signals can be related to the eruptions of 
Krakatau (1883) and Agung (1963). 


VARIABLES AND UNITS:
Column #1: core depth in mm
Column #2: delta C-13 vs V-PDB
Column #3: delta O-18 vs V-PDB
Column #4: assigned date in calendaric years
Column #5: same as #4, but interpolated to bimonthly data
Columns #6 and #7: same as #2 and #3, but interpolated to bimonthly values.
All isotope data are reported in per mil versus the Vienna Pee Dee Belemnite
standard (V-PDB).

PRECISION: Internal precisions (1 SD) are 0.02 per mil for delta O-18,
and 0.015 per mil for delta C-13. External precisions (1 SD) of an internal
laboratory standard (Solnhofen limestone) are 0.07 per mil for delta O-18, and
0.05 per mil for delta C-13.

SAMPLING RESOLUTION: Average sampling density is 6.7 samples per year. The
bimonthly data were interpolated with an Excel-macro.

AGE MODEL: Based on couplets of annual density bands and seasonality in d18O.
Within each year the highest (least depleted) d18O value was tied to
mid-September, which is the coldest month on average.

CONTACT: Henning Kuhnert, Universität Bremen, Fachbereich Geowissenschaften,
Postfach 330440, 28334 Bremen, Germany. Phone:  49 (0)421 2187769, Fax:
 49 (0)421 2183116, Email: hkuhnert@uni-bremen.de.