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Holocene changes in the position and intensity of the southern westerly wind belt

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Abstract

The position and intensity of the southern westerly wind belt varies seasonally as a consequence of changes in sea surface temperature. During the austral winter, the belt expands northward and the wind intensity in the core decreases. Conversely, during the summer, the belt contracts, and the intensity within the core is strengthened. Reconstructions of the westerly winds since the last glacial maximum, however, have suggested that changes at a single site reflected shifts throughout the entire southern wind belt1,2,3,4. Here we use sedimentological and pollen records to reconstruct precipitation patterns over the past 12,500 yr from sites along the windward side of the Andes. Precipitation at the sites, located in the present core and northern margin of the westerlies, is driven almost entirely by the wind belt5, and can be used to reconstruct its intensity. Rather than varying coherently throughout the Holocene epoch, we find a distinct anti-phasing of wind strength between the core and northern margin over multi-millennial timescales. During the early Holocene, the core westerlies were strong whereas the northern margin westerlies were weak. We observe the opposite pattern in the late Holocene. As this variation resembles modern seasonal variability, we suggest that our observed changes in westerly wind strength can best be explained by variations in sea surface temperature in the eastern South Pacific Ocean.

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Figure 1: Modern climatology and setting.
Figure 2: Proxy records for precipitation and wind strength in the core SWW (53° S) and at the northern SWW margin (34° S).
Figure 3: Compilation of paleoclimatic records to explain Holocene SWW changes.

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Acknowledgements

We thank R. Gersonde and R. Tiedemann for comments and suggestions. M. Arevalo and O. B. Urrea are acknowledged for technical and logistic support during various campaigns with RV Gran Campo II and laboratory work in Trier, respectively. Financial support was made available through the GFZ-Potsdam, the Gary Comer Science and Education Foundation (CSEF) as well as through DFG grants AR 367/6-1, Ki-456/10, and La 1273/7-1.

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All authors interpreted the results and contributed to the final manuscript. F.L. and R.K. wrote the final version of the manuscript. J-P.F. performed the pollen analyses. H.W.A. and T.S. carried out most of the remaining analytical work. M.P. contributed climatological background data and analyses.

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Correspondence to Frank Lamy.

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The authors declare no competing financial interests.

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Lamy, F., Kilian, R., Arz, H. et al. Holocene changes in the position and intensity of the southern westerly wind belt. Nature Geosci 3, 695–699 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1038/ngeo959

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