Relative sea-level trends in southern Norway during the last millennium

Abstract

Geological reconstructions of relative sea level (RSL) from southern Norway show falling RSL during the last 7000 cal. a BP, but tide gauge measurements document a slow RSL rise since at least 1960 CE. With an age gap of c. 1400 years between the youngest geologically reconstructed sea-level index point (SLIP) and the installation of the Tregde tide gauge in southernmost Norway, the exact nature and timing of the onset of RSL rise in southern Norway remain unknown. To fill this gap, we collected peat cores from a salt marsh to reconstruct RSL trends over the past 1000 years using a multiproxy approach, including ²¹⁰Pb and ¹⁴C dating, grain-size analysis, loss-on-ignition (LOI), geochemistry (stable carbon isotopes, carbon to nitrogen ratios and XRF) and diatoms. Our data suggest decreasing tidal current strength and salinity over most of the last millennium, suggesting falling RSL. Sediment geochemistry also appears to vary with wetter and drier climatic periods. An increase in marine-brackish diatoms in combination with an acceleration in sedimentation rates after 1930 CE (1899–1954 CE) suggest that the onset of RSL rise began around this time in southernmost Norway. While most of the proxy data appear to have delayed sensitivity to RSL changes and may be linked to other causal processes, they, nonetheless, provide valuable insight into the environmental response of high-latitude temperate salt marshes to slow rates of RSL change.