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- Title
Holocene sea level instability in the southern Great Barrier Reef, Australia: high-precision U-Th dating of fossil microatolls.
- Authors
Leonard, Nicole; Zhao, J-x; Welsh, K.; Feng, Y-x; Smithers, S.; Pandolfi, J.; Clark, T.
- Abstract
Three emergent subfossil reef flats from the inshore Keppel Islands, Great Barrier Reef (GBR), Australia, were used to reconstruct relative sea level (RSL). Forty-two high-precision uranium-thorium (U-Th) dates obtained from coral microatolls and coral colonies (2σ age errors from ±8 to 37 yr) in conjunction with elevation surveys provide evidence in support of a nonlinear RSL regression throughout the Holocene. RSL was as least 0.75 m above present from ~6500 to 5500 yr before present (yr BP; where 'present' is 1950). Following this highstand, two sites indicated a coeval lowering of RSL of at least 0.4 m from 5500 to 5300 yr BP which was maintained for ~200 yr. After the lowstand, RSL returned to higher levels before a 2000-yr hiatus in reef flat corals after 4600 yr BP at all three sites. A second possible RSL lowering event of ~0.3 m from ~2800 to 1600 yr BP was detected before RSL stabilised ~0.2 m above present levels by 900 yr BP. While the mechanism of the RSL instability is still uncertain, the alignment with previously reported RSL oscillations, rapid global climate changes and mid-Holocene reef 'turn-off' on the GBR are discussed.
- Subjects
GREAT Barrier Reef; SEA level; CORAL colonies; MICROATOLLS; CLIMATE change research; HOLOCENE Epoch
- Publication
Coral Reefs, 2016, Vol 35, Issue 2, p625
- ISSN
0722-4028
- Publication type
Report
- DOI
10.1007/s00338-015-1384-x