Sea level-climate correlation

Sea level-climate correlation during the past 1400 yr

O. van de Plassche1, K. van der Borg² en A.F.M. de Jong2
1. Free University Amsterdam, Faculty of Earth Sciences, The Netherlands;2. Utrecht University, Faculty of Physics and Astronomy, The Netherlands;

Abstract

We present a new mean-high-water curve for Hammock River marsh, Clinton, Connecticut, obtained by improving the age model for an existing record of relative marsh elevation based on foraminiferal analysis of a 1.8-m-long peat core. Unlike the earlier curve, the new curve confirms trend changes in mean-high-water rise during the past 1400 yr as noted for salt marshes 15 km farther west, suggesting a regional cause. These trend changes and century-scale mean-high-water variations in the Clinton record correlate positively with large-scale regional variations in sea-surface and summer-air temperature, indicating a link between sea-level and the climate-ocean system. On the basis of the Clinton mean-high water curve, we conclude that real sea level oscillated centimeters to decimeters on a century time scale over the past 1400 yr, was higher 25±25 cm higher ca A.D. 1050 (Medieval Warm Period) than ca A.D. 1650 (Little Ice Age), and rose at a mean rate of ~1 mm.yr^-1 over the past 350 yr; there was little or no rise during the cool 1800s.