SPCZ migration and ENSO events during the 20th century as revealed by climate proxies from a Fiji coral

Instrumental sea surface temperature (SST) and sea surface salinity (SSS) records since 1975 have indicated that migrations of the South Pacific Convergence Zone (SPCZ) are strongly related to El Nino-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) events. To reconstruct independent SSS and SST time series for the past century and document this SPCZ and ENSO relationship prior to 1975, we apply a neural network analysis to seven climate proxies derived from a coral skeleton collected in Fiji. These reconstructions suggest that five SPCZ migrations linked to ENSO occurred between 1908 and 1970 while as many migrations occurred during the last three decades, highlighting the recent enhanced frequency of ENSO occurrence.