Insolation and Upwelling in the Northeast Pacific during the Holocene: Quantifying the Link with Cd/Ca Ratios in Estuarine Foraminifera

PIs will reconstruct the history of changes in the intensity of equatorward winds over NE Pacific since the last climatic optimum 9 K.y. ago. These data will serve to test the general circulation models of the past climate that suggests that upwelling-favorable winds have weakened since the last climatic optimum due to decline in the summer insolation over northern Hemisphere. Dissolved cadmium concentrations in foraminiferal shells will be used as proxy for upwelling in core from estuaries in Humboldt and Coos Bays, NW United States.