A new Late Holocene sea-level record from the Mississippi Delta: evidence for a climate/sea level connection?

González, Juan Luis Jiménez; Törnqvist, Torbjörn E.

doi:10.1016/j.quascirev.2009.04.003

Cited by 59 publications

(65 citation statements)

References 51 publications

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“…3). Salt-marsh proxy records from the Gulf of Mexico (17,18) show stable sea level until AD 1000, followed by rise to a peak at AD 1200. In Connecticut, sea level rose rapidly at AD 1000 (19), although this record may be compromised by sedimentary hiatuses from hurricane erosion (20,21).…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Climate related sea-level variations over the past two millennia

Kemp

Horton

Donnelly

et al. 2011

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

393

189

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We present new sea-level reconstructions for the past 2100 y based on salt-marsh sedimentary sequences from the US Atlantic coast. The data from North Carolina reveal four phases of persistent sea-level change after correction for glacial isostatic adjustment. Sea level was stable from at least BC 100 until AD 950. Sea level then increased for 400 y at a rate of 0.6 mm/y, followed by a further period of stable, or slightly falling, sea level that persisted until the late 19th century. Since then, sea level has risen at an average rate of 2.1 mm/y, representing the steepest century-scale increase of the past two millennia. This rate was initiated between AD 1865 and 1892. Using an extended semiempirical modeling approach, we show that these sea-level changes are consistent with global temperature for at least the past millennium.climate | ocean | late Holocene | salt marsh C limate and sea-level reconstructions encompassing the past 2,000 y provide a preanthropogenic context for understanding the nature and causes of current and future changes. Hemispheric and global mean temperature have been reconstructed using instrumental records supplemented with proxy data from natural climate archives (1, 2). This research has improved understanding of natural climate variability and suggests that modern warming is unprecedented in the past two millennia (1). In contrast, understanding of sea-level variability during this period is limited and the response to known climate deviations such as the Medieval Climate Anomaly, Little Ice Age, and 20th century warming is unknown. We reconstruct sea-level change over the past 2100 y using new salt-marsh proxy records and investigate the consistency of reconstructed sea level with global temperature using a semiempirical relationship that connects sea-level changes to mean surface temperature (3, 4). The new sea level proxy data constrain a multicentennial response term in the semiempirical model. Results and DiscussionSea-Level Data. Salt-marsh sediments and assemblages of foraminifera record former sea level because they are intrinsically linked to the frequency and duration of tidal inundation and keep pace with moderate rates of sea-level rise (5, 6). We developed transfer functions using a modern dataset of foraminifera (193 samples) from 10 salt marshes in North Carolina, USA (7). Transfer functions are empirically derived equations for quantitatively estimating past environmental conditions from paleontological data (8). The transfer functions were applied to foraminiferal assemblages preserved in 1 cm thick samples from two cores of salt-marsh sediment (Sand Point and Tump Point, North Carolina; Fig. 1) to estimate paleomarsh elevation (PME), which is the tidal elevation at which a sample formed with respect to its contemporary sea level (9). Unique vertical errors were calculated by the transfer functions for each PME estimate and were less than 0.1 m. Composite chronologies were developed using Accelerator Mass Spectrometry (AMS) 14 C (conventional, high-precision, and bo...

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Climate related sea-level variations over the past two millennia

Kemp

Horton

Donnelly

et al. 2011

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

393

189

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Salt-marsh proxy records from the Gulf of Mexico (17,18) show stable sea level until AD 1000, followed by rise to a peak at AD 1200. In Connecticut, sea-level rose rapidly at AD 1000 (19), although this record maybe compromised by sedimentary hiatuses from hurricane erosion (20,21). In Iceland, sea level fell gradually from AD 500 to 1800, possibly as a result of regional steric influences (22).…”

Section: Comparison With Other Proxy Sea-level Reconstructionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Other published studies of late Holocene sea-level change were adjusted for rates of glacio-isostatic adjustment (GIA) using estimates presented in the original publication (Maine (17), Nova Scotia (17, 18), Louisiana (19), Iceland (20), Israel (21)), Italy (22) and the Cook Islands (23)), or from (24) in the cases of Spain and New Zealand. No GIA correction was applied to the Israel data because the original publication states that the net effect was zero (21) because the rate of land subsidence was offset by ocean basin subsidence.…”

Section: Gia However the Location Of A Sea-level Reconstruction (Nementioning

confidence: 99%

Climate related sea-level variations over the past two millennia

Kemp

2012

Quaternary International

113

191

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We present new sea-level reconstructions for the past 2100 years based on salt-marsh sedimentary sequences from the US Atlantic coast. The data from North Carolina reveal four phases of persistent sea-level change after correction for glacial isostatic adjustment.Sea level was stable from at least BC 100 until AD 950. It then increased for 400 years at a rate of 0.6 mm/yr, followed by a further period of stable, or slightly falling, sea level that persisted until the late 19 th century. Since then, sea level has risen at an average rate of 2.1 mm/yr, representing the steepest, century-scale increase of the past two millennia.This rate was initiated between AD 1865 and 1892. Using an extended semi-empirical modeling approach, we show that these sea-level changes are consistent with global temperature for at least the past millennium.

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“…Datasets which cover the 81 last 700 and 1500 years in Connecticut, USA (Donnelly et al, 2004;van de Plassche, 2000 82 respectively) and AD 600-1600 in Louisiana (González and Törnqvist, 2009) provide snapshots of past 83 RSL, but it is difficult to clearly identify periods of past sea-level change from such short records. It 84 has been suggested that the regionally variable signals along the USA-Canadian margin during the 85 late Holocene may, in part, be due to changes in the strength and position of the Gulf Stream 86 (Fairbridge, 1992;Fletcher et al, 1993;Gehrels et al, 2002), in a similar way to sea-level changes 87 recorded by tide gauges over the last 50 years (Kopp, 2013;Sallenger et al, 2012).…”

Section: Introduction 33mentioning

confidence: 99%