Inter-annual sea level change and transgression along a barrier Island coast

• Published in: Frontiers in Environmental Science
• Main Author: Gary A. Zarillo
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Frontiers Media S.A. 2023
• Subjects: sea-level rise; coastal transgression; sediment budgets; coastal sea level; Gulf Stream; Environmental sciences; GE1-350; Barrier Island; North Atlantic
• Online Access: https://doi.org/10.3389/fenvs.2023.1107458; https://doaj.org/article/31f7cc1cf93e42f8b1ab1e6f35b84c28

On the decadal time scale of coastal planning and management, relative sea-level rise is usually considered a trend or constant rate rather than a dynamic, time varying influence on coastal change. However, the coastal ocean sea level along the east coast of Florida and coastal regions further north is, to a first order, controlled at the interannual and decadal time scale by the dynamics of North Atlantic circulation and Gulf Stream (GS) flow, Every coastal region has its own distinctive annual sea-level cycle, and longer-term intra- and inter-decadal sea-level oscillations. This paper addresses the influence of the strong Florida coastal ocean sea-level signal on topographic evolution of the shoreface, coastal sediment budgets, and potential for coastal transgression at the decadal time scale.