A preindustrial sea-level rise hotspot along the Atlantic Coast of North America

© The Author(s), 2020. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License. The definitive version was published in Gehrels, W. R., Dangendorf, S., Barlow, N. L. M., Saher, M. H., Long, A. J., Woodworth, P. L., Piecuch, C. G., & Berk, K. A preindustrial sea-le...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Geophysical Research Letters
Main Authors: Gehrels, W. Roland, Dangendorf, Sönke, Barlow, Natasha L. M., Saher, Margot H., Long, Antony J., Woodworth, Philip L., Piecuch, Christopher G., Berk, Kevin
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:unknown
Published: American Geophysical Union 2020
Subjects:
Sea level
Late Holocene
Common Era
Climate
Ocean
Arctic
Barlow
Iceland
North Atlantic
North Atlantic oscillation
Online Access:https://hdl.handle.net/1912/25816
Description
Summary:© The Author(s), 2020. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License. The definitive version was published in Gehrels, W. R., Dangendorf, S., Barlow, N. L. M., Saher, M. H., Long, A. J., Woodworth, P. L., Piecuch, C. G., & Berk, K. A preindustrial sea-level rise hotspot along the Atlantic Coast of North America. Geophysical Research Letters, 47(4), (2020): e2019GL085814, doi:10.1029/2019GL085814. The Atlantic coast of North America north of Cape Hatteras has been proposed as a “hotspot” of late 20th century sea‐level rise. Here we test, using salt‐marsh proxy sea‐level records, if this coast experienced enhanced sea‐level rise over earlier multidecadal‐centennial periods. While we find in agreement with previous studies that 20th century rates of sea‐level change were higher compared to rates during preceding centuries, rates of 18th century sea‐level rise were only slightly lower, suggesting that the “hotspot” is a reoccurring feature for at least three centuries. Proxy sea‐level records from North America (Iceland) are negatively (positively) correlated with centennial changes in the North Atlantic Oscillation. They are consistent with sea‐level “fingerprints” of Arctic ice melt, and we therefore hypothesize that sea‐level fluctuations are related to changes in Arctic land‐ice mass. Predictions of future sea‐level rise should take into account these long‐term fluctuating rates of natural sea‐level change. This work is funded by the Natural Environment Research Council (grant NE/G003440/1). All radiocarbon dating was supported by the Natural Environment Research Council Radiocarbon Facility (allocations 1490.0810, 1566.0511, 1604.0112). Mark Wood assisted with fieldwork. Rob Scaife analyzed pollen data for core SN‐3.3. Sönke Dangendorf and Kevin Berk acknowledge the University of Siegen for their support within the PEPSEA project. Christopher Piecuch was supported by National Science Foundation awards OCE‐1558966 and OCE‐1834739. We thank project members Miguel ...

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