A Preindustrial Sea‐Level Rise Hotspot Along the Atlantic Coast of North America

Gehrels, Roland; Dangendorf, Sönke; Barlow, Natasha; Saher, Margot; Long, Antony J.; Woodworth, Philip L.; Piecuch, C. G.; Berk, Kevin

doi:10.1029/2019gl085814

Cited by 27 publications

(24 citation statements)

References 123 publications

(144 reference statements)

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“…10 , 11 ). Although the combined nonlinear signal varies on multidecadal to multicentennial timescales, we do not identify any consistent periodicity, nor any rapid, large magnitude changes in rate as have been described recently 25 . Instead the linear contribution clearly dominates RSL rise through the Common Era until it is matched or surpassed by the global contribution in the 20th century.…”

Section: Resultscontrasting

confidence: 87%

“…The 2274 individual data points in the database use proxies such as foraminifera, diatoms, testate amoebae, coral microatolls, archaeological evidence, and sediment geochemistry. We have updated the database (Supplementary Data) from Kemp et al (2018) to include 390 new RSL data points from northern New Jersey, USA (this study); Croatia 56 ; French Polynesia 57 ; Israel 58 ; Quebec 59 ; Connecticut 25 ; Maine 25 ; and Nova Scotia 25 . We compared the new northern New Jersey record with other published records along the U.S. Atlantic coast from southern New Jersey (Leeds Point and Cape May Courthouse 14 ), New York City 15 , Connecticut 60 , and North Carolina 45 to examine regional variability in magnitudes and rates of past RSL change, as well as variability in regional Common Era sea-level budgets.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Common Era sea-level budgets along the U.S. Atlantic coast

et al. 2021

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Sea-level budgets account for the contributions of processes driving sea-level change, but are predominantly focused on global-mean sea level and limited to the 20th and 21st centuries. Here we estimate site-specific sea-level budgets along the U.S. Atlantic coast during the Common Era (0–2000 CE) by separating relative sea-level (RSL) records into process-related signals on different spatial scales. Regional-scale, temporally linear processes driven by glacial isostatic adjustment dominate RSL change and exhibit a spatial gradient, with fastest rates of rise in southern New Jersey (1.6 ± 0.02 mm yr−1). Regional and local, temporally non-linear processes, such as ocean/atmosphere dynamics and groundwater withdrawal, contributed between −0.3 and 0.4 mm yr−1 over centennial timescales. The most significant change in the budgets is the increasing influence of the common global signal due to ice melt and thermal expansion since 1800 CE, which became a dominant contributor to RSL with a 20th century rate of 1.3 ± 0.1 mm yr−1.

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Section: Resultscontrasting

confidence: 87%

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Common Era sea-level budgets along the U.S. Atlantic coast

et al. 2021

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“…Late Holocene microfossil‐based relative sea‐level (RSL) reconstructions complement observational data from tide gauges and are crucial for understanding the rates and processes driving sea‐level change from the pre‐instrumental period to the present day (e.g. Gehrels et al ., 2005, 2020; Kemp et al ., 2011; Barlow et al ., 2013; Gehrels and Woodworth, 2013; Kopp et al ., 2016; Walker et al ., 2021). Southern Hemisphere proxy records (e.g.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Gehrels, 2000; Donnelly et al ., 2004; Gehrels et al ., 2005; Kemp et al ., 2011, 2018; Long et al ., 2014), which is perhaps surprising given that the Southern Hemisphere hosts most of the world's oceans (Dangendorf et al ., 2019). Spatiotemporal patterns in these far‐field sea‐level data are also of critical importance for determining the processes driving Southern Hemisphere RSL change, including quantifying glacial mass‐balance fluctuations in response to Common Era climate change (Mitrovica et al ., 2001; Gehrels and Woodworth, 2013; Gehrels et al ., 2020).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Drivers of 20th century sea‐level change in southern New Zealand determined from proxy and instrumental records

Garrett

Gehrels

Hayward³

et al. 2022

J Quaternary Science

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In this paper we present new proxy-based sea-level reconstructions for southern New Zealand spanning the last millennium. These palaeo sea-level records usefully complement sparse Southern Hemisphere proxy and tide-gauge sea-level datasets and, in combination with instrumental observations, can test hypotheses about the drivers of 20th century global sea-level change, including land-based ice melt and regional sterodynamics. We develop sea-level transfer functions from regional datasets of salt-marsh foraminifera to establish a new proxybased sea-level record at Mokomoko Inlet, at the southern tip of the South Island, and to improve the previously published sea-level reconstruction at Pounawea, located about 110 km to the east. Chronologies are based on radiocarbon, radiocaesium, stable lead isotope and pollen analyses. Both records are in good agreement and show a rapid sea-level rise in the first half of the 20th century that peaked in the 1940s. Previously reported discrepancies between proxy-based sea-level records and tide-gauge records are partially reconciled by accounting for barystatic and sterodynamic components of regional sea-level rise. We conclude that the rapid sea-level rise during the mid-20th century along the coast of southern New Zealand was primarily driven by regional thermal expansion and ocean dynamics.

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“…Therefore, it is important to study regional climatic changes for flood-prone coastal communities. The idea of connections between weakening in the GS strength and rising coastal sea level is not new (Montgomery, 1938;Blaha, 1984) and has been identified in data and ocean models (Ezer, 1999(Ezer, , 2001(Ezer, , 2013(Ezer, , 2015Ezer et al, 2013;Levermann et al, 2005;Yin and Goddard, 2013;Goddard et al, 2015). Because sea level is lower on the onshore side of the GS and higher on the offshore side (by ∼ 1-1.5 m; due to the geostrophic balance), changes in the path and strength of the GS offshore can impact coastal sea level variations along the US East Coast (see, e.g., Fig.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Global sea level reconstruction for 1900–2015 reveals regional variability in ocean dynamics and an unprecedented long weakening in the Gulf Stream flow since the 1990s

Ezer

Dangendorf

2020

Ocean Sci.

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Abstract. A new monthly global sea level reconstruction for 1900–2015 was analyzed and compared with various observations to examine regional variability and trends in the ocean dynamics of the western North Atlantic Ocean and the US East Coast. Proxies of the Gulf Stream (GS) strength in the Mid-Atlantic Bight (GS-MAB) and in the South Atlantic Bight (GS-SAB) were derived from sea level differences across the GS. While decadal oscillations dominate the 116-year record, the analysis showed an unprecedented long period of weakening in the GS flow since the late 1990s. The only other period of long weakening in the record was during the 1960s–1970s, and red noise experiments showed that is very unlikely that those just occurred by chance. Ensemble empirical mode decomposition (EEMD) was used to separate oscillations at different timescales, showing that the low-frequency variability of the GS is connected to the Atlantic Multi-decadal Oscillation (AMO) and the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC). The recent weakening of the reconstructed GS-MAB was mostly influenced by weakening of the upper mid-ocean transport component of AMOC as observed by the RAPID measurements for 2005–2015. Comparison between the reconstructed sea level near the coast and tide gauge data for 1927–2015 showed that the reconstruction underestimated observed coastal sea level variability for timescales less than ∼5 years, but lower-frequency variability of coastal sea level was captured very well in both amplitude and phase by the reconstruction. Comparison between the GS-SAB proxy and the observed Florida Current transport for 1982–2015 also showed significant correlations for oscillations with periods longer than ∼5 years. The study demonstrated that despite the coarse horizontal resolution of the global reconstruction (1∘ × 1∘), long-term variations in regional dynamics can be captured quite well, thus making the data useful for studies of long-term variability in other regions as well.

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A Preindustrial Sea‐Level Rise Hotspot Along the Atlantic Coast of North America

Cited by 27 publications

References 123 publications

Common Era sea-level budgets along the U.S. Atlantic coast

Common Era sea-level budgets along the U.S. Atlantic coast

Drivers of 20th century sea‐level change in southern New Zealand determined from proxy and instrumental records

Global sea level reconstruction for 1900–2015 reveals regional variability in ocean dynamics and an unprecedented long weakening in the Gulf Stream flow since the 1990s

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