The sources of sea‐level changes in the Mediterranean Sea since 1960

Calafat, F.M. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7474-135X; Frederikse, T.; Horsburgh, K. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4803-9919. 2022 The sources of sea‐level changes in the Mediterranean Sea since 1960. Journal of Geophysical Research: Oceans, 127 (9). 10.1029/2022JC019061

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Abstract/Summary

Past sea-level changes in the Mediterranean Sea are highly non-uniform and can deviate significantly from both the global average sea-level rise and changes in the nearby Atlantic. Understanding the causes of this spatial non-uniformity is crucial to the success of coastal adaptation strategies. This, however, remains a challenge owing to the lack of long sea-level records in the Mediterranean. Previous studies have addressed this challenge by reconstructing past sea levels through objective analysis of sea-level observations. Such reconstructions have enabled significant progress toward quantifying sea-level changes, however, they have difficulty capturing long-term changes and provide little insight into the causes of the changes. Here, we combine data from tide gauges and altimetry with sea-level fingerprints of contemporary land-mass changes using spatial Bayesian methods to estimate the sources of sea-level changes in the Mediterranean Sea since 1960. We find that, between 1960 and 1989, sea level in the Mediterranean fell at an average rate of −0.3 ± 0.5 mm yr−1, due to an increase in atmospheric pressure over the basin and opposing sterodynamic and land-mass contributions. After 1989, Mediterranean sea level started accelerating rapidly, driven by both sterodynamic changes and land-ice loss, reaching an average rate of 3.6 ± 0.3 mm yr−1 in the period 2000–2018. The rate of sea-level rise shows considerable spatial variation in the Mediterranean Sea, primarily reflecting changes in the large-scale circulation of the basin. Since 2000, sea level has been rising faster in the Adriatic, Aegean, and Levantine Seas than anywhere else in the Mediterranean Sea.

Item Type:	Publication - Article
Digital Object Identifier (DOI):	10.1029/2022JC019061
ISSN:	2169-9275
Date made live:	27 Sep 2022 12:05 +0 (UTC)
URI:	https://nora.nerc.ac.uk/id/eprint/533274

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