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The Pacific Decadal Oscillation less predictable under greenhouse warming

Abstract

The Pacific Decadal Oscillation (PDO) is the most prominent form of decadal variability over the North Pacific, characterized by its horseshoe-shaped sea surface temperature anomaly pattern1,2. The PDO exerts a substantial influence on marine ecosystems, fisheries and agriculture1,2,3. Through modulating global mean temperature, the phase shift of the PDO at the end of the twentieth century is suggested to be an influential factor in the recent surface warming hiatus4,5. Determining the predictability of the PDO in a warming climate is therefore of great importance6. By analysing future climate under different emission scenarios simulated by the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project phase 5 (ref. 7), we show that the prediction lead time and the associated amplitude of the PDO decrease sharply under greenhouse warming conditions. This decrease is largely attributable to a warming-induced intensification of oceanic stratification, which accelerates the propagation of Rossby waves, shortening the PDO lifespan and suppressing its amplitude by limiting its growth time. Our results suggest that greenhouse warming will make prediction of the PDO more challenging, with far-reaching ramifications.

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Fig. 1: Assessing predictability of the PDO.
Fig. 2: Reduced PDO predictability under greenhouse warming.
Fig. 3: Mechanisms for projected reduction in PDO predictability.

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Data availability

Data related to this paper can be downloaded from the following websites: HadISST v1.1, https://climatedataguide.ucar.edu/climate-data/sst-data-hadisst-v11; ERSST v5, https://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/data-access/marineocean-data/extended-reconstructed-sea-surface-temperature-ersst-v5; ERSST v4, https://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/data-access/marineocean-data/extended-reconstructed-sea-surface-temperature-ersst-v4; ERSST v3b, https://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/data-access/marineocean-data/extended-reconstructed-sea-surface-temperature-ersst-v3b; COBE SST2, https://www.esrl.noaa.gov/psd/data/gridded/data.cobe2.html; Kaplan SST v2, https://www.esrl.noaa.gov/psd/data/gridded/data.kaplan_sst.html; SODA, http://apdrc.soest.hawaii.edu/datadoc/soda_2.2.4.php; and CMIP5 database, http://www.ipcc-data.org/sim/gcm_monthly/AR5/.

Code availability

Codes for performing the APT analyses and conducting theoretical model experiments are available on reasonable request from the corresponding authors.

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Acknowledgements

L.W. is supported by a National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC) major project (grant nos 41490640 and 41490643). W.C. and G.W. are supported by CSHOR and the Earth Systems and Climate Change Hub of the Australian Government’s National Environmental Science Program. The Centre for Southern Hemisphere Oceans Research is a research partnership between QNLM and CSIRO. Y.Y and B.G are supported by NSFC projects (grant nos 41976005, 41606008, 41922039 and 91858102) and the National Key R&D Programme of China (grant no. 2016YFA0601803). We acknowledge the WCRP’s Working Group on Coupled Modelling, which is responsible for CMIP, and we thank the climate modelling groups for producing and making available their model output.

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L.W. and S.L. conceived and wrote the initial manuscript in discussion with W.C., Y.Y. and T.G. S.L. performed model analysis and generated final figures. T.G. conducted analysis of the theoretical coupled model. All authors contributed to interpreting results, discussion of the associated dynamics and improvement of this paper.

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Correspondence to Lixin Wu or Wenju Cai.

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Supplementary Figs. 1–6 and Tables 1 and 2.

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Li, S., Wu, L., Yang, Y. et al. The Pacific Decadal Oscillation less predictable under greenhouse warming. Nat. Clim. Chang. 10, 30–34 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41558-019-0663-x

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