Local and distant Pacific climate signals in cave hydrochemistry: Waipuna cave, New Zealand

Abstract

In this study, the preliminary results of monitoring at Waipuna cave, New Zealand, are introduced to support the development of speleothem paleoclimate archives of long-term variability in the El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) and teleconnections to high southern latitudes. Waipuna cave is located in Waitomo region, North Island, NZ, which in turn is situated at the southwestern fringe of the Pacific Ocean, an area highly sensitive to ENSO and the southern Westerlies (Shulmeister et al 2004). Monitoring of current surface and in-cave microclimate parameters help us to understand and interpret the conditions under which geochemical proxies were incorporated into the speleothem and quantify climate-speleothem transfer functions.