Research Seminar: Investigating Holocene relative sea-level changes in the tropics

Sea-level rise poses an imminent threat to low-lying coastal communities, with the possibility of multi-metre sea-level rise by the end of this century due to uncertain future ice-sheet behaviour. Holocene relative sea-level (RSL) data provides important constraints for glacial isostatic adjustment (GIA) models that predict the spatio-temporal response of RSL to ice-sheet melt since the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM). Holocene RSL data have also been used to unravel the relationships between past climates, ice sheets and sea level, offering insights into the processes and interactions driving RSL changes. However, current understanding of Holocene RSL changes is hindered by the paucity of high-resolution records from tropical regions. Here, I present two new Holocene RSL records spanning the mid to late Holocene. Fossil coral microatolls from Singapore show slight RSL fluctuations superimposed on a gradual RSL fall of between 0.1 ± 0.3 mm/yr and 0.2 ± 0.7 mm/yr since 2800 yrs BP. A 12 m-thick sequence of mangrove peat from Belize shows approximately linear rates of RSL rise since ~8500 yrs BP, broken up by two periods of abrupt slowdown at ~6800 yrs BP and ~3700 yrs BP.

Poster