Abstract
To research the relationship between coral growth rate and sea surface temperatnre (Tss), 5 cores of livingPorites lutea were collected from the Xisha Islands and the southern Hainan Island waters and measured. The results of the study show that there is an obviously positive correlation between the coral growth rates and theTss records from the northern part of South China Sea. The annual growth rates of the five samples ofPorites lutea during the past 100 a are in the range of 7—15 mm/a, and their mean value is 11 mm/a. The correlation coefficients between the coral growth rates and the Tss records from the waters during 1961—1993 are in the range of 0.77—0.89. As a result, a thermometer of the coral growth rate is established. A hindcasting Tss, in the waters from 1993 to 1961 has been obtained with an error of about 0.12—0.17°C. Based upon the calculated result, the rising rate of Tss in the northern part of South China Sea during the past 100 a is 0.20°C. which is higher than that of the air temperature in China (0.09°C/100 a), but lower than that of the global temperature and that of Tss in the tropical western Pacific Ocean.
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Project supported by the National Nutural Science Foundation of China and the Multidesciplinary Oceanographic Expedition Team of Chinese Academy of Sciences to the Nansha Islands.
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Nie, B., Chen, T., Liang, M. et al. Relationship between coral growth rate and sea surface temperature in the northern part of South China Sea during the past 100 a. Sci. China Ser. D-Earth Sci. 40, 173–182 (1997). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02878376
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02878376