Sea-level Research: a Manual for the Collection and Evaluation of Data : A Manual for the Collection and Evaluation of Data

An editorial by Wanless (1982), entitled "Sea level is rising - so what?", tells the case of an executive editor of a major city newspaper, who, when confronted with evi­ dence for a recent sea-level rise, replied: "That just means the ocean is six inches deeper, doesn't it?". Whether his "so what?" attitude was real or put on to dike a threat of sensation, there is at present a wide and deepening interest in ongoing and future global sea-level change. This interest has grown along with the concern over global warming due to increasing levels of C02 and trace gases. A stage has been reached where investigators of climat- sea-level relationships call for long-term measurement programmes for ice-volume changes (using satellite altimetry) and changes in temperature and salinity of the oceans (ther­ mal expansion). This manual, however, is primarily concerned with sea­ level changes in the past, mainly since the end of the last glaciation. Its major objective is to help answer the ques­ tion: "how?", which, of course, is little else but to assist in the gathering of fuel for the burning question: "why?" Good fuel, hopefully, for the less smoke and ashes, and the more heat and light produced by that fire, the better scientists are enabled to develop a quantitative under­ standing of past, and hence of future, sea-level changes on different spatial and temporal scales. Front Matter....Pages i-xxv Introduction....Pages 1-26 Sea-level changes in the Holocene....Pages 27-64 Front Matter....Pages 65-65 Elevation and age relationships: raised marine deposits and landforms in glaciated areas: Examples based on Canadian Arctic data....Pages 67-95 Sea-level markers in coastal barrier sands: examples from the North Sea coast....Pages 97-128 Marine molluscs as indicators of former sea-level stands....Pages 129-155 Beachrock as a sea-level indicator....Pages 157-173 Ooids as sea-level indicators....Pages 175-193 Corals and reefs as indicators of paleo-sea levels with special reference to the Great Barrier Reef....Pages 195-228 Coralline algae as indicators of sea-level....Pages 229-280 Vermetid gastropods as sea-level indicators....Pages 281-310 The diagenetic products of marine carbonates as sea-level indicators....Pages 311-360 Marine notches....Pages 361-400 Submerged forests as sea-level indicators....Pages 401-411 Analysis of botanical macro-remains....Pages 413-433 Foraminifera as sea-level indicators....Pages 435-456 Diatoms as indicators of sea-level change....Pages 457-487 Ostracode options in sea-level studies....Pages 489-501 Shell middens as a source for additional information in Holocene shoreline and sea-level reconstruction: examples from the coast of Brazil....Pages 503-521 Front Matter....Pages 523-523 Radiocarbon dating....Pages 525-560 Dendrochronological dating....Pages 561-566 Front Matter....Pages 567-567 Determination of altitude....Pages 569-590 Compaction and consolidation....Pages 591-603 Back Matter....Pages 605-618 A manual for the collection and evaluation of data in sea-level research. Sea-level research has been undergoing considerable self-examination, the demand for more, and better quality, but above all methodologically compatible sea-level data, has increased significantly.