Rainfall variability over the Amazon basin has often been linked to variations in Pacific sea surface temperature (SST), and in particular, to the El Niño/Southern Oscillation (ENSO). However, only a fraction of Amazon rainfall variability can be explained by ENSO. Building upon the recent work of Zeng (Environ Res Lett 3:014002, 2008), here we provide further evidence for an influence on Amazo...

Despite advances over the last two decades in the capacity to predict the evolution of the El Niño–southern oscillation (ENSO) phenomenon and advances in understanding of the relationship between ENSO and climate, there has been little use of climate predictions for water resources management in the tropics. As part of an effort to develop such a prediction scheme, the ENSO influences on stream...

Epidemics of lathyrism, a neurological syndrome of spastic paraparesis, have occurred during severe droughts in Europe, Asia, and Africa for millenia. Causation is linked to exposure to β-N-oxalyl-L-α,β-diaminopropionic acid (β-L-ODAP), a neurotoxin in Lathyrus sativus. Lathyrism shares neurological features with konzo, a syndrome of predominantly spastic paraparesis which occurs during drought...

BACKGROUND Natural disasters have profound effects on health and require medical intervention as part of relief operations. The world's populations are becoming increasingly vulnerable to extreme weather events, which are responsible for most natural disasters. The El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO) is the most prominent global climate system associated with year-to-year weather variability an...

A nonlinear aspect of the El Niño—Southern Oscillation (ENSO)--its regulatory effect on the background state (the climatological state)--is described. In particular, it is shown that ENSO acts as a basin-scale heat “mixer” that prevents any significant increase from occurring in the time-mean difference between the warm-pool SST (Tw) and the temperature of the thermocline water (Tc). When this ...

[1] A new pathway for the negative impact of ENSO on tropical North Atlantic (NAtl) storm activity is examined empirically. Anomalous tropospheric temperatures communicated from the Pacific by wave dynamics are hypothesized to impact storm development by affecting column stability relative to equilibrium with NAtl sea surface temperature (SST). This combines recent teleconnection theory with th...

The positive phase of the El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) increases global mean temperature, and contributes to a negative phase of the Southern Annular Mode (SAM), the dominant mode of climate variability in the Southern Hemisphere. This interannual relationship of a high global mean temperature associated with a negative SAM, however, is opposite to the relationship between their trends u...

Disturbances that are strongly linked to global climatic cycles may occur in a regular, predictable manner that affects composition and distribution of ecological communities. The El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO) influences worldwide precipitation patterns and has occurred with regular periodicity over the last 130 000 years. We hypothesized that ENSO, through effects on local weather condit...