气候变化领域集成服务门户

New York City (NYC) is threatened by 21st-century relative sea-level (RSL) rise because it will experience a trend that exceeds the global mean and has high concentrations of low-lying infrastructure and socioeconomic activity. To provide a long-term context for anticipated trends, we reconstructed RSL change during the past similar to 1500years using a core of salt-marsh sediment from Pelham Bay in The Bronx. Foraminifera and bulk-sediment C-13 values were used as sea-level indicators. The history of sediment accumulation was established by radiocarbon dating and recognition of pollution and land-use trends of known age in down-core elemental, isotopic, and pollen profiles. The reconstruction was generated within a Bayesian hierarchical model to accommodate multiple proxies and to provide a unified statistical framework for quantifying uncertainty. We show that RSL in NYC rose by similar to 1.70m since similar to 575 CE (including similar to 0.38m since 1850 CE). The rate of RSL rise increased markedly at 1812-1913 CE from similar to 1.0 to similar to 2.5mm/yr, which coincides with other reconstructions along the US Atlantic coast. We investigated the possible influence of tidal-range change in Long Island Sound on our reconstruction using a regional tidal model, and we demonstrate that this effect was likely small. However, future tidal-range change could exacerbate the impacts of RSL rise in communities bordering Long Island Sound. The current rate of RSL rise is the fastest that NYC has experienced for >1500years, and its ongoing acceleration suggests that projections of 21st-century local RSL rise will be realized.