Advances in geosciences, volume 33, 1, 2013:
This special issue focuses on El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO), the dominant climate mode of variability in the Pacific Ocean, which impacts many surrounding countries. It addresses the new challenges faced by the scientific community, starting with proposing new paradigms for explaining the diversity of ENSO to better understand and predict its impacts, in other words its teleconnections. The papers contained in this issue cover the following range of topics: from physical oceanography, ENSO teleconnection, continental hydrology associated to large scale forcing, and impact on fisheries to climate change.
The research papers selected were written by attendees of the international workshop entitled “ENSO, Decadal Variability and Climate Change in South America – Trends, teleconnections and potential impacts” organized in Guayaquil (Ecuador) between 12 and 14 October 2010. They include: (i) structure of ocean circulation between the Galápagos Islands and Ecuador; (ii) enhancement of near-annual variability in the equatorial Pacific in 2000–2008; (iii) a multivariate climate index for the western coast of Colombia; (iv) influence of different rates of rainfall in the basin of the Uruguay River; (v) ENSO impact on hydrology in Peru; (vi) seasonal prediction of extreme precipitation events and frequency of rainy days over Costa Rica, Central America; (vii) rainfall variability related to sea surface temperature anomalies in a Pacific–Andean basin into Ecuador and Peru; (viii) evaluation of the current state of small pelagic fisheries in the Colombian Pacific: ensuring the sustainability of the resource and evaluating its response to climatic events; and (ix) climate trends and projections for the Andean Altiplano and strategies for adaptation.