Editor's Summary
18 January 2007
Australasia in the firing line
Detailed climatic reconstructions of the past 6,300 years from massive corals document previously unknown changes in the Indian Ocean Dipole — a climatic oscillation that has profound impacts on rainfall in the Indian Ocean region. These new records reveal an unexpected connection between protracted droughts in Indonesia and periods of strong Asian monsoon rainfall. Future changes in Asian monsoon strength are therefore likely to have more widespread consequences than previously forecast. Predictions of changing monsoon strength have focused mainly on the impact on Asia and India, but the new data point to adverse consequences throughout Australasia.
News and Views: Climate change: Lessons from a distant monsoon
The burden of global warming falls most heavily on the developing world. A connection forged between the Indian Ocean climate, Asian monsoons and drought in Indonesia makes for an especially bleak outlook for that nation.
Jonathan T. Overpeck and Julia E. Cole
doi:10.1038/445270a
Letter: Seasonal characteristics of the Indian Ocean Dipole during the Holocene epoch
Nerilie J. Abram, Michael K. Gagan, Zhengyu Liu, Wahyoe S. Hantoro, Malcolm T. McCulloch and Bambang W. Suwargadi
doi:10.1038/nature05477
First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (359K) | Supplementary information
