Geochemistry of coral from Papua New Guinea as a proxy for ENSO ocean–atmosphere interactions in the Pacific Warm Pool

2004 ◽  
Vol 24 (19) ◽  
pp. 2343-2356 ◽  
Author(s):  
Linda K. Ayliffe ◽  
Michael I. Bird ◽  
Michael K. Gagan ◽  
Peter J. Isdale ◽  
Heather Scott-Gagan ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Papua New Guinea ◽  
New Guinea ◽  
Warm Pool ◽  
The Pacific ◽  
Pacific Warm Pool ◽  
Ocean Atmosphere

scholarly journals Human-caused Indo-Pacific warm pool expansion

2016 ◽  
Vol 2 (7) ◽  
pp. e1501719 ◽  
Author(s):  
Evan Weller ◽  
Seung-Ki Min ◽  
Wenju Cai ◽  
Francis W. Zwiers ◽  
Yeon-Hee Kim ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Climate Model ◽  
Hydrological Cycle ◽  
Heat Content ◽  
Warm Pool ◽  
Small Island ◽  
Past Century ◽  
The Pacific ◽  
Pacific Warm Pool ◽  
Basin Scale ◽  
Climate Model Simulations

The Indo-Pacific warm pool (IPWP) has warmed and grown substantially during the past century. The IPWP is Earth’s largest region of warm sea surface temperatures (SSTs), has the highest rainfall, and is fundamental to global atmospheric circulation and hydrological cycle. The region has also experienced the world’s highest rates of sea-level rise in recent decades, indicating large increases in ocean heat content and leading to substantial impacts on small island states in the region. Previous studies have considered mechanisms for the basin-scale ocean warming, but not the causes of the observed IPWP expansion, where expansion in the Indian Ocean has far exceeded that in the Pacific Ocean. We identify human and natural contributions to the observed IPWP changes since the 1950s by comparing observations with climate model simulations using an optimal fingerprinting technique. Greenhouse gas forcing is found to be the dominant cause of the observed increases in IPWP intensity and size, whereas natural fluctuations associated with the Pacific Decadal Oscillation have played a smaller yet significant role. Further, we show that the shape and impact of human-induced IPWP growth could be asymmetric between the Indian and Pacific basins, the causes of which remain uncertain. Human-induced changes in the IPWP have important implications for understanding and projecting related changes in monsoonal rainfall, and frequency or intensity of tropical storms, which have profound socioeconomic consequences.

scholarly journals ‘Food is life’: Documenting the politics of food in Melanesia

2015 ◽  
Vol 21 (2) ◽  
pp. 77
Author(s):  
Ceridwen Spark
Keyword(s):  
Gender Roles ◽  
Cultural Values ◽  
Papua New Guinea ◽  
Food Consumption ◽  
New Guinea ◽  
Population Management ◽  
Creative Performance ◽  
The Pacific ◽  
West Papua ◽  
The Impact

In this article, I discuss two recent examples of women’s filmmaking in Melanesia. The documentaries are Tanah Mama (2014), focused on West Papua and Café Niugini (2015), set in Papua New Guinea. Both films explore and represent food in profoundly different ways. Here, I consider their respective depictions of food, demonstrating that Tanah Mama represents food as sustenance while Café Niugini renders food as ‘cuisine’ through the ‘creative performance’ of cookery. Nevertheless, and as I argue, both documentaries reflect the filmmakers’ interest in representing issues associated with food in the Pacific, including the importance of Indigenous access to land, population management, gender roles and the impact of changing cultural values on food consumption and health.

The World’s Oldest Tsunami Victim at the Gateway to the Pacific—and Beyond

Tsunami ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. 37-48
Author(s):  
James Goff ◽  
Walter Dudley
Keyword(s):  
Pacific Ocean ◽  
Papua New Guinea ◽  
Pacific Islands ◽  
New Guinea ◽  
Mass Graves ◽  
The Pacific ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
The World ◽  
The Pacific Ocean ◽  
Settlement Abandonment

The 1998 Papua New Guinea tsunami was a significant puzzle for scientists who finally cracked the cause, but it also marks the most recent event of many that can be dated back to at least 6,000 years ago where the skull of the oldest tsunami victim in the world was found. Papua New Guinea was also the starting point for the most remarkable navigational feat in the world, with Polynesians moving rapidly east into the Pacific Ocean, their settlement of the region being punctuated by hiatuses caused by catastrophic tsunamis approximately 3,000, 2,000, and 600 years ago. It was on isolated Pacific islands that humans first came into contact with the deadly Pacific Ring of Fire. Settlement abandonment, mass graves, and cultural collapse mark their progress.

scholarly journals Building operational research capacity in Papua New Guinea and the Pacific Islands

2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. S3-S3
Author(s):  
K. Viney ◽  
K. Bissell ◽  
P. C. Hill
Keyword(s):  
Papua New Guinea ◽  
Operational Research ◽  
Pacific Islands ◽  
New Guinea ◽  
Research Capacity ◽  
The Pacific

scholarly journals A Climatological Interpretation of the Circulation in the Western South Pacific*

2002 ◽  
Vol 32 (9) ◽  
pp. 2492-2508 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tangdong Qu ◽  
Eric J. Lindstrom
Keyword(s):  
Papua New Guinea ◽  
New Guinea ◽  
Western Boundary ◽  
Guinea Coast ◽  
Boundary Currents ◽  
The North ◽  
Intermediate Layers ◽  
Water Property ◽  
The Pacific ◽  
Equatorial Current

Abstract Time-averaged circulation is examined using historical hydrographic data near the Australia and Papua New Guinea coast in the Pacific. By averaging the data along isopycnal surfaces in a 0.5° × 0.5° grid, the authors are able to show many detailed phenomena associated with the narrow western boundary currents, including the vertical structure of the bifurcation latitude of the South Equatorial Current (SEC) and the connection between the Solomon and Coral Seas. The bifurcation latitude of the SEC is found to move southward from about 15°S near the surface to south of 22°S in the intermediate layers. The origin of the Great Barrier Reef Undercurrent (GBRUC) is identified to be at about 22°S. Farther to the north, the GBRUC intensifies underlying the surface East Australian Current, and merges with the North Queensland Current (NQC) at about 15°S. The NQC turns eastward to flow along the Papua New Guinea coast and feeds into the New Guinea Coastal Undercurrent (NGCUC) through the Louisiade Archipelago. Further analysis shows that there is a strong water property connection between the Coral and Solomon Seas, confirming the earlier speculation on the water mass origins of the NGCUC.

A 12-Million-Year Temperature History of the Tropical Pacific Ocean

Science ◽  
2014 ◽  
Vol 344 (6179) ◽  
pp. 84-87 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yi Ge Zhang ◽  
Mark Pagani ◽  
Zhonghui Liu
Keyword(s):  
El Niño ◽  
El Nino ◽  
Warm Pool ◽  
Sea Surface ◽  
Temperature History ◽  
Seawater Chemistry ◽  
The Pacific ◽  
Pacific Warm Pool ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Tropical Pacific

The appearance of permanent El Niño–like conditions prior to 3 million years ago is founded on sea-surface temperature (SST) reconstructions that show invariant Pacific warm pool temperatures and negligible equatorial zonal temperature gradients. However, only a few SST records are available, and these are potentially compromised by changes in seawater chemistry, diagenesis, and calibration limitations. For this study, we establish new biomarker-SST records and show that the Pacific warm pool was ~4°C warmer 12 million years ago. Both the warm pool and cold tongue slowly cooled toward modern conditions while maintaining a zonal temperature gradient of ~3°C in the late Miocene, which increased during the Plio-Pleistocene. Our results contrast with previous temperature reconstructions that support the supposition of a permanent El Niño–like state.

A case study of the Flex LNG/Rift Oil floating LNG project in Papua New Guinea

2009 ◽  
Vol 49 (2) ◽  
pp. 594
Author(s):  
Peter Dighton
Keyword(s):  
Papua New Guinea ◽  
Critical Path ◽  
Production Capacity ◽  
New Guinea ◽  
Design Parameters ◽  
Start Up ◽  
The Pacific ◽  
Fiscal Regime ◽  
Project Structure

Flex LNG Limited is a producer of units for the production, storage and off-take of liquefied natural gas (LNG). It currently has four of these units committed for construction by Samsung Heavy Industries in Korea, utilising the SPB LNG containment system. The world’s first floating liquefaction unit will be delivered to Flex in 2012. Floating LNG facilities have unique potential for monetising uncommitted gas reserves. In June 2008 Flex and Rift PLC entered into a co-operation agreement under which they agreed to work together to develop a floating liquefaction project offshore Papua New Guinea (PNG). The project will utilise Rift’s gas reserves and one of Flex LNG’s floating liquefaction units. Annual production capacity will be 1.5 million tonnes of LNG and start-up is targetted for 2012. The paper will be a case study of this project including: critical path, project structure and contractual matrix, upstream reserves and facilities, feed gas quantity and quality, pipeline issues and, key design parameters and liquefaction operations for the LNG producer. The paper will also cover: direct and indirect stakeholders in the project; economics and financing; PNG-specific issues such as geography, permitting, fiscal regime, local employment opportunities, marine conditions, infrastructure and sovereign risk; LNG demand in the Pacific and LNG marketing and off-take arrangements.

The scorpion-tailed orb-weaving spiders (Araneae, Araneidae, Arachnura) in Australia and New Zealand

Zootaxa ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 4706 (1) ◽  
pp. 147-170
Author(s):  
PEDRO DE S. CASTANHEIRA ◽  
RAPHAEL K. DIDHAM ◽  
COR J. VINK ◽  
VOLKER W. FRAMENAU
Keyword(s):  
New Zealand ◽  
East Asia ◽  
Papua New Guinea ◽  
New Guinea ◽  
South East Asia ◽  
Pacific Region ◽  
Single Female ◽  
South Eastern ◽  
Nomen Dubium ◽  
The Pacific

The scorpion-tailed orb-weaving spiders in the genus Arachnura Vinson, 1863 (Araneidae Clerck, 1757) are revised for Australia and New Zealand. Arachnura higginsii (L. Koch, 1872) only occurs in Australia and A. feredayi (L. Koch, 1872) only in New Zealand. A single female collected in south-eastern Queensland (Australia) is here tentatively identified as A. melanura Simon, 1867, but it is doubtful that this species has established in Australia. Two juveniles from northern Queensland do not conform to the diagnoses of any of the above species and are illustrated pending a more thorough revision of the genus in South-East Asia and the Pacific region. An unidentified female from Westport (New Zealand) does not conform to the diagnoses of A. feredayi and A. higginsii, but is not described due to its poor preservation status. Arachnura caudatella Roewer, 1942 (replacement name for Epeira caudata Bradley, 1876), originally described from Hall Sound (Papua New Guinea) and repeatedly catalogued for Australia, is considered a nomen dubium. 

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