GEOPHYSICAL RESEARCH LETTERS, VOL. 34, L13607, doi:10.
1029/2006GL028812, 2007
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Enhancement of coastal upwelling and interdecadal ENSO-like
variability in the Peru-Chile Current since late 19th century
Gabriel Vargas,1 Silvio Pantoja,2 José A. Rutllant,3 Carina B. Lange,2 and Luc Ortlieb4
Received 4 December 2006; revised 12 April 2007; accepted 16 May 2007; published 10 July 2007.
[1] Secular trends in coastal upwelling proxies from a
sediment record at 23°S encompassing 250 years reveal two
distinct stages separated by a transition period between AD
1820 and 1878. Persistent interdecadal variability that
roughly follows the Pacific Decadal Oscillation is
accompanied by intensification of upwelling-favourable
coastal winds and decreased coastal sea surface
temperature since AD 1878. We propose that an increased
land-sea thermal contrast along the arid coast of northern
Chile and Peru intensifies the equatorward wind stress due
to reduced mean low-cloud cover, resulting in enhanced
primary and export production during interdecadal El Niño-
like conditions. This mechanism overcompensates for the
overall effect of a regional surface warming secular trend in
the Peru-Chile Current System, providing a novel insight on
physical and biogeochemical feedbacks of coastal upwelling
ecosystems to global warming. Citation: Vargas, G.,
S. Pantoja, J. A. Rutllant, C. B. Lange, and L. Ortlieb (2007),
Enhancement of coastal upwelling and interdecadal ENSO-like
variability in the Peru-Chile Current since late 19th century,
Geophys. Res. Lett., 34, L13607, doi:10.1029/2006GL028812.
1. Introduction
[2] Eastern boundary currents constitute highly produc-
tive regions, in part, because strong air-sea-land physical
interactions drive upwelling and primary productivity
[Berger, 1988]. Of these, coastal upwelling in the Peru-
Chile Current, along the arid margin of western South
America, supports one of the most productive areas of the
global ocean [Berger, 1988; Daneri et al., 2000]. Here,
upwelling-favourable winds pump nutrient-rich waters from
the Equatorial Subsurface Waters (ESSW) into the euphotic
zone [Strub et al., 1998], enhancing primary production.
Interannual ENSO events play a large role in the dynamics
of this coastal ocean [Carr et al., 2002], as do interdecadal
ENSO-like conditions [Zhang et al., 1997; Garreaud and
Battisti, 1999]. This last mode of ocean-climate variability
has received much attention in recent years due to its pan-
Pacific nature [Zhang et al., 1997; Garreaud and Battisti,
1999], potential role in the modulation of El Niño events
[Power et al., 1999], and impact on fisheries particularly
along eastern boundary currents [Mantua et al., 1997;
Yañez et al., 2001]. In spite of their importance, the
1
Department of Geology, University of Chile, Santiago, Chile.
2
Department of Oceanography and Center for Oceanographic Research
in the Eastern South Pacific, University of Concepción, Concepción, Chile.
3
Department of Geophysics, University of Chile, Santiago, Chile.
4
Paléotropique, Institut de Recherche pour le Développement, Bondy,
France.
Copyright 2007 by the American Geophysical Union.
0094-8276/07/2006GL028812
L13607
implications of interdecadal ENSO-like variability on
physical ocean-atmosphere feedbacks and its impact on
biogeochemical processes in coastal upwelling systems, as
well as its relationship with global warming, remain
poorly understood.
[3] Bakun [1990] showed that upwelling-favourable wind
stress has augmented along coastal regions of the world
ocean since the mid twentieth century in response to land-
sea-atmosphere feedbacks induced by high CO2 radiative
forcing associated to the greenhouse warming. Here, we
analyzed laminated sediments from an upwelling system in
northern Chile (Mejillones Bay, 23°S) which, together with
additional short sediment cores from the tropical/subtropical
Peru-Chile margin and with twentieth century instrumental
data, evidence that this mechanism is a predominant mean
to enhance coastal upwelling at centennial time scales and
particularly during interdecadal El Niño-like periods of the
twentieth century.
2. Geochronology of Laminated Sediments
[4] We studied laminated sediments from a 42-cm-long
box core collected in October 1998 in Mejillones Bay at
80 m depth (F981A: 23°3.3 0S, 70°27.4 0W). Precise
geochronology was deduced from 210Pb and 14C downcore
data (see the auxiliary material1). A constant mass accumu-
lation rate (W) was calculated from excess 210Pb in the first
2.35 g of accumulated dry sediment per square centimeter,
corresponding to the first 10 cm in this core (Figure 1a). The
calculated W = 0.032 ± 0.002 g cm2 y1 is equivalent to a
mean sedimentation rate (SR) of 0.131 ± 0.07 cm y1. AMS
radiocarbon data were obtained from the organic matter
after acidification with HCl. Coastal upwelling systems in
northern Chile and southern Peru are characterized by
depleted 14C-content in CO2 of the ESSW [Toggweiler et
al., 1991], which explains high radiocarbon Regional Res-
ervoir Effect (DR) values as reported previously in this
region [Taylor and Berger, 1967]. Abrupt changes in the
upwelling regime can induce variations in D14C of the
superficial water masses, and ultimately inversions in
the radiocarbon ages, as observed in carbonates from corals
in the equatorial upwelling off western South America
[Brown et al., 1993]. These variations are assumed to
explain the significant inversion in 14C ages at 3.7 g cm2
(19.25 cm of core depth) in our sediment core (Figure 1b).
Therefore, we used the mean decreasing trend of the 14C
ages to estimate a W = 0.034 ± 0.05 g cm2 y1 for the
entire core, equivalent to a mean SR of 0.167 ± 0.022 cm y1,
which is close to the W = 0.032 ± 0.002 g cm2 y1
1
Auxiliary materials are available in the HTML. doi:10.1029/
2006GL028812.
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L13607 VARGAS ET AL.: COASTAL UPWELLING AND ENSO-LIKE
calculated from excess 210Pb data in the first 10 cm. Then,
this 210Pb-derived W was extrapolated to the entire core to
produce an independent chronological model that supports a
rapid increase in DR since 1878 in our sediment record
(Figure 1c). Given that the last geochronology was vali-
dated by a 4 increase in sedimentary yttrium during 1913 –
1915 (Figure 1d), associated with the deposition of carbon
emissions from a railway factory in the city of Mejillones
since 1912 [Panadés et al., 1995], we have used it as a
chronological framework encompassing the time interval
between AD 1740 and 1997 at 2 to 4-year resolution.
Geochronologies of two additional sediment cores from
36°S (St. 26) and 15°S (SC3) were calculated from the
extrapolation of mass accumulation rates (W) of 0.050 g
cm2 y1 [Muñoz et al., 2004] and of 0.041 g cm2 y1
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[McCaffrey et al., 1990] obtained from excess 210Pb in both
sedimentary series.
3. Results and Discussion
[5] We determined mineral and organic carbon fluxes and
alkenone-based sea surface temperature (SST) from lami-
nated sediments at 23°S. These, along with upwelling-
related diatom fluxes, are powerful indicators of the
intensification of coastal upwelling-favourable southerly
winds and primary productivity [Vargas et al., 2004],
especially during the late austral spring season when re-
gional land-sea thermal contrasts are enhanced [Rutllant et
al., 1998; Strub et al., 1998]. Near surface alkenone-derived
sea temperatures [Prahl et al., 1988] in these sediments are
lower than the annual mean AVHRR data, probably due to
alkenone production during upwelling events or in the
subsurface not detected by the satellite (auxiliary material).
[6] Secular trends in coastal upwelling proxies from the
sediment core at 23°S divide the record into two distinct
stages separated by a transition period between AD 1820
and 1878. Lithic mineral fluxes were low prior to 1820;
thereafter, they experienced large fluctuations and a sus-
tained increase throughout the twentieth century (Figure 2a).
Mean organic carbon fluxes increased by 23% since the first
half of the nineteenth century (Figure 2b). This occurs
concomitantly with an increment in sedimentary d 15N
(Figure 2c) and an abrupt decrease in sedimentary D14C
(Figure 2d), mirrored by a 2°C average decrease (from 19.1
to 17.1°C) in alkenone-derived SST (Figure 2e).
[7] The rapid decrease/increase in marine D14C/DR and
the occurrence of very low/high values of D14C/DR from
AD 1878 onward (Figures 1c and 2d), is coherent with the
strong influence of nutrient-rich/CO2-enriched/14C-depleted
ESSW that characterise the modern coastal upwelling
systems in the region [Strub et al., 1998; Toggweiler et
al., 1991; Torres et al., 2002]. Consequently, this pattern is
consistent with a secular increase in upwelling intensity and
associated productivity driven by the intensification of the
alongshore southerly winds and an increased influence of
Figure 1. Mass accumulation rates and geochronology
from the core F981A in Mejillones Bay. Accumulated mass
of dry sediment per square centimeter is equivalent to core
depth measured in centimeters. (a) Excess 210Pb downcore
data and mass accumulation rate for the first 10 cm (2.35 g
cm2) measured through alpha counting in the top 15.5 cm.
(b) AMS radiocarbon data from samples of the sedimentary
organic fraction in this core, and mass accumulation rate
calculated from the mean decreasing trend of conventional
ages (black circles). Grey circles are anomalous old
radiocarbon data most probably associated with a rapid
increase in DR (see text). White diamond corresponds to an
anomalously young value, most probably reflecting nuclear
tests during the mid-twentieth century. (c) Estimations of
DR values considering the chronological model obtained
from the extrapolation to the entire core of the 210Pb-derived
W. (d) Yttrium/scandium anomaly, reflecting the influence
of carbon emissions associated with a railway factory in the
early twentieth century [Panadés et al., 1995], which
validates the last chronology.
L13607 VARGAS ET AL.: COASTAL UPWELLING AND ENSO-LIKE L13607

Figure 2. Time series from sediment cores along the western coast of South America at 23°S, 15°S, and 36°S,
encompassing the last centuries. (a) Lithic mineral fluxes at 23°S (± 0.59 mg cm2 y1) interpreted as alongshore southerly
wind strength. (b) Organic carbon fluxes at 23°S (± 0.16 mg cm2 y1) used as an indicator of primary/export production.
(c) Bulk sedimentary d15N (± 0.26%), suggesting denitrification and hypoxia at the bottom of the water column.
(d) Composite series of D14C values (± 5%) from three sediment cores (F981A, F981Be, and 32B) from the Mejillones
basin, correlated through high resolution sedimentary data [Vargas et al., 2005], showing the increased influence of
nutrient-rich/CO2-enriched and 14C-depleted ESSW [Strub et al., 1998; Toggweiler et al., 1991; Torres et al., 2002] in this
coastal upwelling system since AD 1878. Most recent data are probably affected by nuclear weapon tests during the second
half of the twentieth century. (e, f) Alkenone-derived SST at 23°S and 15°S [McCaffrey et al., 1990], respectively,
interpreted as the strength of the Ekman pumping in the upwelling centres. (g) Organic carbon fluxes at 15°S, Peru
[McCaffrey et al., 1990]. (h) Alkenone-derived SST at 36°S off Concepción. Black arrows indicate trends in sedimentary
proxies during the period between 1820 and 1878 (grey rectangle) concomitant with or following the strong cooling in
alkenone-based SST from the sediment core obtained at 23°S. White arrows indicate warming trends during the last
350 years in the offshore area at 36°S.

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L13607 VARGAS ET AL.: COASTAL UPWELLING AND ENSO-LIKE
Figure 3. Pacific Decadal Oscillation index (PDO)
[Mantua et al., 1997], characterizing ENSO-like interdeca-
dal variability during the twentieth century [Zhang et al.,
1997; Garreaud and Battisti, 1999], and results from
spectral analyses on sedimentary time series from the core at
23°S. (a) Standardized anomaly from the annual mean of
the PDO index. (b) Standardized anomaly from organic
carbon fluxes at 23°S during the twentieth century.
(c) Interdecadal component anomalies of organic carbon
fluxes, lithic mineral fluxes, and alkenone-derived SST,
obtained from singular spectrum analysis on the original
time series, compared with interdecadal El Niño-like
periods during the twentieth century (orange areas).
(d) Power spectrum from Gaussian wavelet analysis on
the original time series of lithic mineral fluxes [Torrence
and Compo, 1998]. Note increasing interdecadal variability
since AD 1820 and amplified interdecadal variability in the
fluxes from AD 1878 onward.
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these water masses in coastal upwelling regimes, probably
inducing more important denitrification processes in the
water column as well. Additionally, alkenone-based SST
reconstructions from a 210Pb-dated short sediment core
retrieved from a coastal upwelling centre at 15°S off
southern Peru [McCaffrey et al., 1990] also show an abrupt
decline in upwelling-related SST associated with increasing
total organic carbon fluxes since the late nineteenth century
[McCaffrey et al., 1990] (Figures 2f and 2g), broadening the
scope of our regional observations. This secular intensifi-
cation and cooling of coastal upwelling regimes along
northern Chile and southern Peru contrasts with a warming
trend over the past 350 years in an offshore area in the
Humboldt Current System at 36°S, as shown by our
alkenone-based SST reconstruction from a 210Pb-dated
35-cm-long sediment record (dating by Muñoz et al.
[2004]) (Figure 2h).
[ 8 ] Time series from our sediment record at 23°S
revealed also interdecadal variability, that roughly follows
the Pacific Decadal Oscillation (PDO) [Mantua et al., 1997]
during the twentieth century (Figures 3a and 3b and
auxiliary material). The singular spectrum and Gaussian
wavelet analyses of the original lithic mineral signal sup-
ports a strengthened amplitude of interdecadal variability
centred at 44 – 60 years (>95% confidence, n = 82)
[Torrence and Compo, 1998] since the late nineteenth
century (Figures 3c and 3d), which overlays the secular
intensification of coastal upwelling in the region. Enhanced
alongshore winds and export production with increasing
upwelling strength characterises the warm interdecadal El
Niño-like conditions that occurred between 1925 and 1942
and from 1976 –77 onward [Zhang et al., 1997; Garreaud
and Battisti, 1999] (Figure 3c), whereas the opposite (La
Niña-like) conditions prevailed between 1943 and 1976
(Figure 3c). These results are counterintuitive in light of
previous reports that characterised interannual El Niño
events by a deepening of the thermo-nutricline, which
would tend to decrease fertilization under similar upwell-
ing-favourable wind conditions, resulting in changes in
biological communities and reduced primary and export
production [González et al., 2000; Escribano et al., 2004].
[9] To unveil this paradox, we turn to the basic principles
of large-scale and regional forcing of upwelling-favourable
winds along the coast of northern Chile. Whereas its large-
scale component is the zonal sea-level pressure gradient at
the eastern rim of the southeast Pacific subtropical anticy-
clone, the regional component derives from land-sea surface
temperature differences along the coastal Atacama Desert,
mostly controlled by low-cloud stratocumulus variability
[Rutllant et al., 1998; Strub et al., 1998]. Enhanced differ-
ential land-sea surface heating during clear-sky conditions is
associated with strong southerly winds that positively feed
back into the land-sea thermal gradient, resulting in en-
hanced upwelling, particularly during austral spring and
summer [Rutllant et al., 1998; Strub et al., 1998; Rutllant et
al., 2003]. As an illustration of this mechanism at play, a
consistent climatic jump of about +1 m s1 in the mean
coastal southerly wind velocity at 23°S, equivalent to a ca.
+15 m2 s2 jump in the pseudo wind stress (a coastal
upwelling index) [Rutllant et al., 2004], started in 1976 at
the onset of El Niño-like conditions in the Pacific [Zhang et
al., 1997; Garreaud and Battisti, 1999] (Figures 4a and 4b).
L13607 VARGAS ET AL.: COASTAL UPWELLING AND ENSO-LIKE
This sudden change was concomitant with a ca. 0.8 oktas
decrease in the mean low-cloud cover (Figure 4c) that
followed an earlier increase of 0.9°C in regional SSTs
(Figure 4d). Thus, the intensification of upwelling-favorable
coastal winds appears to have been driven by enhanced
solar heating over land through a decrease in low-cloud
cover, as previously suggested for Lima (Peru) [Enfield,
1981] and shown for Antofagasta (23.5°S) [Rutllant et al.,
1998]. This decrease in low-cloud cover could stem from
both an increase in the upward turbulent sensible heat flux
during warmer sea surface conditions and the associated
entrainment of warm, dry air atop the marine boundary
layer, which combine with a general decrease in the stability
of the lower troposphere associated with the large-scale
weakening of the subtropical anticyclone during El Niño-
like conditions, as previously documented for the 1997 –
1998 El Niño event [Rutllant et al., 2003]. We propose that
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the intensification of coastal southerly winds since the mid-
1970s overcompensates the slight deepening (of up to 10 m)
in the thermo-nutricline depth associated with the + 0.9°C
regional SST change observed between the late 1960s and
the 1980s along western South America [Montecinos et al.,
2003; Pizarro and Montecinos, 2004], resulting in a net
increase in primary and export production during the warm
phase of interdecadal ENSO-like variability along this arid
margin.
4. Concluding Remarks
[10] We propose here that the intensified and amplified
interdecadal variability of the alongshore southerly winds
along the arid coast of northern Chile and southern Peru
since the late nineteenth century, resulted from warmer
regional sea surface conditions in the southeastern tropical-
subtropical Pacific. The upwelling transition between AD
1820 and 1878 would have been related to a basin-scale
reorganization of the ocean-climate system that culminated
since the 1870s in another climate conditions, as suggested
also by corals in the western tropical Pacific [Hendy et al.,
2002]. During the twentieth century, strengthened land-sea
thermal contrasts, particularly during the spring and summer
seasons of interdecadal El Niño-like periods, resulted in
enhanced coastal upwelling and primary/export production.
Enhanced land-sea thermal contrasts, due to the ocean lag
in the global warming [Bakun, 1990] and to land-cover-
atmosphere feedbacks induced by high CO2 radiative forcing
[Schwing and Mendelssohn, 1997], seem to explain the
intensification of coastal upwelling for the California Cur-
rent, which also warmed since the early twentieth century
[Field et al., 2006]. Thus, our results demonstrate the
sensitivity and relevance of physical land-sea-atmosphere
interactions on coastal upwelling and biogeochemical pro-
cesses in eastern boundary currents, and give a first insight
concerning the non-linear relationship between coastal up-
Figure 4. Comparison between Pacific Decadal Oscilla-
tion index (PDO) [Mantua et al., 1997] characterizing
ENSO-like interdecadal variability [Zhang et al., 1997;
Garreaud and Battisti, 1999], and the anomalies of the
alongshore pseudo-wind stress, low-cloud (stratocumulus)
cover, and offshore SST in northern Chile at 23°S during the
second half of the twentieth century. (a) Monthly mean of
the PDO index. (b) Monthly surface pseudo-stress data of
the afternoon-averaged alongshore winds used as represen-
tative of the daily upwelling-index [Rutllant et al., 2004].
(c) Monthly low-cloud (stratocumulus) cover data. (d) Sea
surface temperature retrieved from COADS archives at the
closest point to our sampling site (23°S). Solid horizontal
lines are derived from statistical sequential regime shift
detection method [Rodionov, 2004; Rodionov and Overland,
2005] based on successive applications of Student’s t-test to
determine if the addition of a new observation to a set of
L observations significantly (95% confidence) changes the
mean value of the time series. If so, the following
observations were sequentially tested to accept or reject the
potential step change. The length L has been chosen as
10 years (120 months) to represent decadal or longer period
step changes.
L13607 VARGAS ET AL.: COASTAL UPWELLING AND ENSO-LIKE
welling, interdecadal ENSO-like variability and global
warming in these regions.
[11] Acknowledgments. We thank C. Cisternas and L. Nuñez for
alkenone measurements on the Concepcion core, D. Repeta and
M. McCaffrey for providing data from Peru, and B. Rosenbluth for support
with spectral analyses. We thank Paléotropique-IRD for geochronological
and sedimentological analyses. Projects DI I 04/05-2 and PRODAC (U. de
Chile to GV and JR) provided experimental support to the influence of
southerly winds in both aeolian northward transport of lithic particles and
enhancement of coastal upwelling during the austral spring-summer seasons
in the area. This work was supported by FONDECYT (CONICYT Chile)
grant 1040503 (to SP).
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C. B. Lange and S. Pantoja, Department of Oceanography and Center for
Oceanographic Research in the Eastern South Pacific, University of
Concepción, Casilla 160-C, Concepción, Chile.
L. Ortlieb, Paléotropique, Institut de Recherche pour le Développement,
32 Avenue Henri Varagnat, F-93143 Bondy, France.
J. A. Rutllant, Department of Geophysics, University of Chile, Blanco
Encalada 2002, Santiago, Chile.
G. Vargas, Department of Geology, University of Chile, Plaza Ercilla
803, Santiago, Chile. (gvargas@ing.uchile.cl)