Collaborative Research: sea-level rise and salt-marsh response: a paleo perspective

Sea-level reconstructions from salt-marsh sediments encompassing the past 4000 years provide a preanthropogenic context for understanding the nature and causes of current and future sea-level changes and an improved understanding of potential ecological effects of sea-level rise. In contrast to climate records, understanding of sea-level variability during this period is limited and the response to known climate deviations such as the Medieval Climate Anomaly, Little Ice Age, and 20th century warming is unknown. This proposal will produce the first continuous, high resolution (decadal and decimeter) reconstructions of sea level spanning the last 4000 years. Foraminifera preserved in North Carolina salt-marsh sediments will be employed as the sea-level proxy. The new, extended high resolution sea-level record from North Carolina will test the following hypotheses that are vital for understanding the climate sea-level relationship: (1) relative sea level was stable before AD 1000; and (2) the contribution to sea-level rise from melting of large sheets ended ~4000 years ago. The proxy sea-level record will be used to validate, for the first time, the Marsh Equilibrium Model (MEM). The MEM describes the regulation of salt-marsh vegetation by changes in sea level. The proxy sea-level record will test the following central hypotheses in the MEM: (3) Stable sediment organic matter concentration will vary inversely with the reconstructed rate of relative sea-level rise.

Scholars @ ECU