Reconstructed Pacific Decadal Oscillation versus Cape Bounty East Lake varve thickness

This paper investigates an annually-laminated (varved) record from the western Canadian Arctic and finds that the varves are negatively corre- lated with both the instrumental Pacific Decadal Oscillation (PDO) during the past century and also with reconstructed PDO over the past 700 years, suggesting drier Arctic con- ditions during high-PDO phases, and vice versa.

These results are in agreement with known regional teleconnections, whereby the PDO is negatively and positively correlated with summer precipitation and mean sea level pressure respec- tively. This pattern is also evident during the positive phase of the North Pacific Index (NPI) in autumn. Reduced sea-ice cover during summer-autumn is observed in the region during PDO (NPI+) and is associated with low-level southerly winds that originate from the northernmost Pacific across the Bering Strait and can reach as far as the western Cana- dian Arctic.