Sea-level change during the last 2500 years in New Jersey, USA

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• 作者：Andrew C. Kemp ; Benjamin P. Horton ; Christopher H. Vane ; Christopher E. Bernhardt ; D. Reide Corbett ; Simon E. Engelhart ; Shimon C. Anisfeld ; Andrew C. Parnell ; Niamh Cahill
• 关键词：Foraminifera ; Salt-marsh ; Transfer function ; Medieval Climate Anomaly ; Little Ice Age ; 20th Century
• 刊名：Quaternary Science Reviews
• 出版年：1 December, 2013
• 年：2013
• 卷：81
• 期：Complete
• 页码：90-104
• 全文大小：1315 K

文摘

Relative sea-level changes during the last 鈭?500 years in New Jersey, USA were reconstructed to test if late Holocene sea level was stable or included persistent and distinctive phases of variability. Foraminifera and bulk-sediment 未¹³C values were combined to reconstruct paleomarsh elevation with decimeter precision from sequences of salt-marsh sediment at two sites using a multi-proxy approach. The additional paleoenvironmental information provided by bulk-sediment 未¹³C values reduced vertical uncertainty in the sea-level reconstruction by about one third of that estimated from foraminifera alone using a transfer function. The history of sediment deposition was constrained by a composite chronology. An age-depth model developed for each core enabled reconstruction of sea level with multi-decadal resolution. Following correction for land-level change (1.4聽mm/yr), four successive and sustained (multi-centennial) sea-level trends were objectively identified and quantified (95% confidence interval) using error-in-variables change point analysis to account for age and sea-level uncertainties. From at least 500聽BC to 250聽AD, sea-level fell at 0.11聽mm/yr. The second period saw sea-level rise at 0.62聽mm/yr from 250聽AD to 733聽AD. Between 733聽AD and 1850聽AD, sea level fell at 0.12聽mm/yr. The reconstructed rate of sea-level rise since 鈭?850聽AD was 3.1聽mm/yr and represents the most rapid period of change for at least 2500 years. This trend began between 1830聽AD and 1873聽AD. Since this change point, reconstructed sea-level rise is in agreement with regional tide-gauge records and exceeds the global average estimate for the 20th century. These positive and negative departures from background rates demonstrate that the late Holocene sea level was not stable in New Jersey.