A reply to McMahon et al.(2008)

Abstract

Recently, McMahon et al. (2008) criticized our article concerning the impacts of climate variability on the reproductive parameters of southern elephant seals (Vergani et al., 2008). We characterized El Niño–Southern Oscillation (ENSO) climate anomalies in the periphery of Antarctica using reanalysed global atmospheric data from Kalnay et al. (1996) encompassing over 40 years of observations. We considered existing evidence for ENSO signals in delineated regions of Antarctica and the current understanding of propagation mechanisms from the source region in the tropical Pacific Ocean to high latitudes of the Southern Hemisphere.