Dataset Information

Half-metre sea-level fluctuations on centennial timescales from mid-Holocene corals of Southeast Asia.

ABSTRACT: Sea-level rise is a global problem, yet to forecast future changes, we must understand how and why relative sea level (RSL) varied in the past, on local to global scales. In East and Southeast Asia, details of Holocene RSL are poorly understood. Here we present two independent high-resolution RSL proxy records from Belitung Island on the Sunda Shelf. These records capture spatial variations in glacial isostatic adjustment and paleotidal range, yet both reveal a RSL history between 6850 and 6500?cal years BP that includes two 0.6?m fluctuations, with rates of RSL change reaching 13±4?mm per year (2?). Observations along the south coast of China, although of a lower resolution, reveal fluctuations similar in amplitude and timing to those on the Sunda Shelf. The consistency of the Southeast Asian records, from sites 2,600?km apart, suggests that the records reflect regional changes in RSL that are unprecedented in modern times.

SUBMITTER: Meltzner AJ

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5309900 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Publications

Half-metre sea-level fluctuations on centennial timescales from mid-Holocene corals of Southeast Asia.

Meltzner Aron J AJ Switzer Adam D AD Horton Benjamin P BP Ashe Erica E Qiu Qiang Q Hill David F DF Bradley Sarah L SL Kopp Robert E RE Hill Emma M EM Majewski Jędrzej M JM Natawidjaja Danny H DH Suwargadi Bambang W BW

Nature communications 20170210

Sea-level rise is a global problem, yet to forecast future changes, we must understand how and why relative sea level (RSL) varied in the past, on local to global scales. In East and Southeast Asia, details of Holocene RSL are poorly understood. Here we present two independent high-resolution RSL proxy records from Belitung Island on the Sunda Shelf. These records capture spatial variations in glacial isostatic adjustment and paleotidal range, yet both reveal a RSL history between 6850 and 6500 ...[more]

PMID: 28186122

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Project description:The forcing mechanisms responsible for centennial to millennial variability of mid-latitude storminess are still poorly understood. On decadal scales, the present-day geographic variability of North-Atlantic storminess responds to latitudinal shifts of the North-Atlantic westerly wind-belt under the prime control of the North-Atlantic Oscillation (NAO). An equivalent mechanism operating at centennial to millennial time scales during the Holocene is still to be ascertained, especially owing to the lack of high-resolution and continuous records of past-storminess extending far enough in time. Here we present a reconstruction of past storminess activity based on a high-resolution record of wind-blown sand retrieved from a near-coastal wetland. Our record extends back to ca. 10,000 B.P. and allows to continuously document fluctuations in the frequency of Holocene storm-force winds at our study-site at a mean high temporal resolution of 40 years. Large similarities between our record and palaeo-oceanographic records of Holocene climate changes in the North-Atlantic suggest that our past-storminess record reproduces a signal of significance for the North-Eastern Atlantic realm. We find that Holocene North-Atlantic storminess is dominated by robust millennial (≈2,500-year) to centennial (≈400 and 200-year) periodicities. These changes in storminess were accompanied by changes in the precipitation regimes over northern Europe, evidencing large-scale shifts in the latitudinal positions of the Atlantic westerlies akin to present-day NAO patterns. We propose that these shifts originate from changes in the position and extent of the Azores high-pressure system and Polar vortex, as supported by climate model simulations. Finally, we demonstrate that enhanced zonal storminess activity over the North-Atlantic was the driver of centennial-scale changes in North-Atlantic oceanic circulation, while ocean dynamics most likely influenced back the atmospheric circulation at millennial time-scales. This may vouch for the instrumental role played by North-Atlantic storminess in triggering abrupt climate change at centennial scales during the Holocene.

Dataset Information

Half-metre sea-level fluctuations on centennial timescales from mid-Holocene corals of Southeast Asia.

Publications

Half-metre sea-level fluctuations on centennial timescales from mid-Holocene corals of Southeast Asia.

Similar Datasets

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