New research: Southern California winter precipitation variability reflected in 100-year ocean salinity record
Rainfall in southern California is highly variable, with some fluctuations explainable by climate patterns. Resulting runoff and heightened streamflow from rain events introduces freshwater plumes into the coastal ocean. Here we use a 105-year daily sea surface salinity record collected at Scripps Pier in La Jolla, California to show that El Niño Southern Oscillation and Pacific Decadal Oscillation both have signatures in coastal sea surface salinity. … This analysis emphasizes the strong influence that precipitation and consequent streamflow has on the coastal ocean, even in a region of overall low freshwater input, and provides an ocean-based metric for assessing decadal rainfall variability.