Abstract:The importance of loss-on-ignition (LOI) and organic matter (OM) analyses in Holocene sea-level and coastal evolution research is reviewed, and recommendations for better-informed inclusion of LOI and differential thermogravimetric analysis (DTGA) in sea-level studies are presented. Focus also centers on the significance of autocompaction, and the use of LOI data for its correction, with respect to Holocene intertidal sediment successions and saltmarsh sedimentary archives of historical sea-level change. Final… Show more
“…2015b; Plater et al . ). Therefore, we conclude that bulk‐sediment geochemistry as characterized by Rock‐Eval pyrolysis has limited utility as a sea‐level indicator in Eurasian sub‐Arctic salt marshes, although its potential application elsewhere warrants further investigation, including its role in multi‐proxy approaches.…”
In support of efforts to reconstruct relative sea level (RSL), we investigated the utility of foraminifera, diatoms and bulk-sediment geochemistry (d 13 C, C:N and parameters measured by Rock-Eval pyrolysis) as sea-level indicators in Eurasian sub-Arctic salt marshes. At three salt marshes (<15 km apart) in Dvina Bay (White Sea, Russia), we collected surface sediment samples along transects from subtidal to Taiga forest environments. Foraminifera at all sites formed bipartite assemblages, where elevations below mean high higher water (MHHW) were dominated by Miliammina spp. and elevations between MHHW and the highest occurrence of foraminifera were dominated by Jadammina macrescens and Balticammina pseudomacrescens. Five high-diversity groups of diatoms were identified and they displayed pronounced variability amongst the study sites. Bulk-sediment geochemistry recognized two groups (clastic-dominated environments below MHHW and organic-rich environments above MHHW). As one group included subtidal elevations and the other included supratidal elevations, we conclude that the measured geochemical parameters are not stand-alone sea-level indicators. Core JT2012 captured a regressive sediment succession of clastic, tidal-flat sediment overlain by salt-marsh organic silt and freshwater peat. The saltmarsh sediment accumulated at 2804AE52 years before present and preserved foraminifera (Jadammina macrescens and Balticammina pseudomacrescens) with good analogy to modern assemblages indicating that RSL was +2.60AE0.47 m at this time. Diatoms confirm that marine influence decreased through time, but the lack of analogy between modern and core assemblages limited their utility as sea-level indicators. Geochemical parameters also indicate a reduction in marine influence through time. We conclude that RSL reconstructions derived from salt-marsh sediment preserved beneath Eurasian sub-Arctic peatlands can provide valuable insight into the spatio-temporal evolution of the Fennoscandian and Eurasian ice sheets.
“…2015b; Plater et al . ). Therefore, we conclude that bulk‐sediment geochemistry as characterized by Rock‐Eval pyrolysis has limited utility as a sea‐level indicator in Eurasian sub‐Arctic salt marshes, although its potential application elsewhere warrants further investigation, including its role in multi‐proxy approaches.…”
In support of efforts to reconstruct relative sea level (RSL), we investigated the utility of foraminifera, diatoms and bulk-sediment geochemistry (d 13 C, C:N and parameters measured by Rock-Eval pyrolysis) as sea-level indicators in Eurasian sub-Arctic salt marshes. At three salt marshes (<15 km apart) in Dvina Bay (White Sea, Russia), we collected surface sediment samples along transects from subtidal to Taiga forest environments. Foraminifera at all sites formed bipartite assemblages, where elevations below mean high higher water (MHHW) were dominated by Miliammina spp. and elevations between MHHW and the highest occurrence of foraminifera were dominated by Jadammina macrescens and Balticammina pseudomacrescens. Five high-diversity groups of diatoms were identified and they displayed pronounced variability amongst the study sites. Bulk-sediment geochemistry recognized two groups (clastic-dominated environments below MHHW and organic-rich environments above MHHW). As one group included subtidal elevations and the other included supratidal elevations, we conclude that the measured geochemical parameters are not stand-alone sea-level indicators. Core JT2012 captured a regressive sediment succession of clastic, tidal-flat sediment overlain by salt-marsh organic silt and freshwater peat. The saltmarsh sediment accumulated at 2804AE52 years before present and preserved foraminifera (Jadammina macrescens and Balticammina pseudomacrescens) with good analogy to modern assemblages indicating that RSL was +2.60AE0.47 m at this time. Diatoms confirm that marine influence decreased through time, but the lack of analogy between modern and core assemblages limited their utility as sea-level indicators. Geochemical parameters also indicate a reduction in marine influence through time. We conclude that RSL reconstructions derived from salt-marsh sediment preserved beneath Eurasian sub-Arctic peatlands can provide valuable insight into the spatio-temporal evolution of the Fennoscandian and Eurasian ice sheets.
“…We determined the organic matter content of core sediments through Loss-On-Ignition (LOI) (Ball, 1964), combusting sediment samples at 450 C for 4 h to provide supplementary evidence for intertidal environmental change (Plater et al, 2015).…”
Differential tectonic activity is a key factor responsible for variable relative sea-level (RSL) changes during the late Holocene in the Adriatic. Here, we compare reconstructions of RSL from the central-eastern Adriatic coast of Croatia with ICE-7G_NA (VM7) glacial-isostatic model RSL predictions to assess underlying driving mechanisms of RSL change during the past~2700 years. Local standardized published sea-level index points (n ¼ 23) were combined with a new salt-marsh RSL reconstruction and tide-gauge measurements. We enumerated fossil foraminifera from a short salt-marsh sediment core constrained vertically by modern foraminiferal distributions, and temporally by radiometric analyses providing subcentury resolution within a Bayesian age-depth framework. We modelled changes in RSL using an Errors-In-Variables Integrated Gaussian Process (EIV-IGP) model with full consideration of the available uncertainty. Previously established index points show RSL rising from À1.48 m at 715 BCE to À1.05 m by 100 CE at 0.52 mm/yr (À0.82-1.87 mm/yr). Between 500 and 1000 CE RSL was À0.7 m below present rising to À0.25 m at 1700 CE. RSL rise decreased to a minimum rate of 0.13 mm/yr (À0.37-0.64 mm/yr) at~1450 CE. The salt-marsh reconstruction shows RSL rose~0.28 m since the early 18th century at an average rate of 0.95 mm/yr. Magnitudes and rates of RSL change during the twentieth century are concurrent with long-term tide-gauge measurements, with a rise of~1.1 mm/yr. Predictions of RSL from the ICE-7G_NA (VM7) glacial-isostatic model (À0.25 m at 715 BCE) are consistently higher than the reconstruction (À1.48 m at 715 BCE) during the Late Holocene suggesting a subsidence rate of 0.45 ± 0.6 mm/yr. The new salt-marsh reconstruction and regional index points coupled with glacial-isostatic and statistical models estimate the magnitude and rate of RSL change and subsidence caused by the Adriatic tectonic framework.
“…Plant macrofossil sampling (Barber et al, 1994;Garneau, 1998;Mauquoy and van Geel, 2007) was carried out at 5 cm resolution, which supported qualitative palaeoenvironmental descriptions and provided material for radiocarbon dating. Loss-on-ignition (Ball, 1964;Plater et al, 2015) was measured at 1 cm depth intervals to provide estimates of organic and mineral contents through the monolith to support palaeoenvironmental interpretations. Microcharcoals were analysed following Whitlock and Larsen (2002) and used as an indicator of local fire regime (Clark and Royall, 1996), providing a qualitative tool to help validate the independent chronology of monolith SimVII.…”
Late Holocene sea-level changes can be reconstructed from salt-marsh sediments with decimetre-scale precision and decadal-scale resolution. These records of relative sea-level changes comprise the net sea-level contributions from mechanisms that act across local, regional and global scales. Recent efforts help to constrain the relative significance of these mechanisms that include sediment dynamics and isostasy, which cause relative sea-level changes via vertical land motion, ocean-atmosphere processes that influence regional-scale ocean mass redistribution, and ocean-cryosphere and steric interactions that drive global scale ocean-volume changes. There remains a paucity of high-resolution Late Holocene sea-level data from eastern Canada. This precludes an interrogation of the mechanisms that define sea-level changes over recent centuries and millennia in a region sensitive to oceanic (Atlantic Multidecadal Variability, Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation), atmospheric (North Atlantic Oscillation, Arctic Oscillation) and cryospheric (ice-mass balance) changes. We present new relative sea-level data that span the past three millennia from Baie des Chaleurs in the Gulf of St. Lawrence generated using salt-marsh foraminifera supported with plant macrofossil analyses. The accompanying chronology is based on radiocarbon and radionuclide analyses, which are independently verified using trace metal and microcharcoal records. Relative sea level has risen at a mean rate of 0.93 ±1.25 mm yr-1 over the past ~1500 years. Residual structure within the reconstruction ('internal variability') has contributed up to an additional 0.61 ±0.46 mm yr-1 of shortlived RSL rise prior to 1800 CE. Following a sea-level low stand during the Little Ice Age, acceleration in relative sea-level rise is identified between 1800 and 1900 CE within the estimates of internal variability and from 1950 CE to present in both the secular and residual trends. Phases of relative sea-level changes in the Gulf of St. Lawrence are concomitant with periods of glacier mass loss following the Little Ice Age, phase periods of the North Atlantic Oscillation and the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation and Northern Hemisphere warming. Quantifying the individual effects of these different mechanisms is important for understanding how ocean-atmosphere processes redistribute ocean-mass upon larger scale background ocean-volume changes.
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