Sea Level Change in the Delaware Bay and Its Impacts on Fetch Limited Barrier Islands

Sea Level Change in the Delaware Bay and Its Impacts on Fetch Limited Barrier Islands
Author: Anna S. Jaworski
Publisher:
Total Pages: 280
Release: 2016
Genre: Barrier islands
ISBN:

In this dissertation I studied historical changes in the Delaware Bay along the New Jersey coastline to improve our understanding of the region as well as better understand how the area will respond to rising seas. The shallow sloping, low elevation shoreline of the Delaware Bay makes it especially vulnerable to sea-level rise. The New Jersey coastline along the Delaware Bay consists of coastal communities, wetlands, sandy beaches, and fetch-limited barrier islands at risk as sea-level rises and shorelines erode. Using dendrochronology and 14C dating of peat deposits I created two sea level curves for the area. Using the 14C curve I found a historical rate of sea level change of 1.5 mm/yr for the last 3000 years. The dendrochronological sea level curve shows a rate of 8.9 mm/yr for the last 57 years. As sea level has risen over the last 130 years, the shoreline has eroded at an average rate of 1.67 m/yr. The wetland shorelines are eroding faster than the regional average at a rate of 4.1 m/yr. As the rate of sea level rise accelerates, so does the rate of shoreline erosion. During the most recent time period, 1970-2013, the average rate of shoreline erosion has increased to 2.64 m/yr for the whole region and 6.12 m/yr for the wetland shorelines. In addition, I sought to better understand the fetch-limited barrier islands in the region. The barrier islands are composed of well sorted, medium and coarse grained sand, which becomes coarser and poorly sorted longshore from north to south. The barrier islands are becoming more fragmented as they migrate landward, but overall sand area has remained stable since the 1970s. Understanding how the system is responding to sea-level rise is critical for helping resource managers' plan for the future of this critical tidal ecosystem.

Tidal Range Changes in the Delaware Bay

Tidal Range Changes in the Delaware Bay
Author: George F. Hall
Publisher:
Total Pages: 95
Release: 2012
Genre: Paleoceanography
ISBN:

Throughout the Holocene, appreciable changes in bathymetry are hypothesized to have resulted in large changes to tidal datums in coastal and estuarine areas. An understanding of tidal change is an important contribution to the knowledge of relative historical sea-level change and future coastal planning. To test this hypothesis, the Advanced Circulation (ADCIRC) model was used, with representative bathymetric grids based on glacial isostatic adjustment models and semi-empirical sea level rise predictions, in order to model the time-varying tidal behavior of the Delaware Bay. Model runs were conducted at various time slices between 10,000 years before present and 300 years into the future on high resolution grids that allowed for inundation moving forward in time. Open boundary tidal forcing was held constant in time to highlight the effect of the changing regional bathymetry. With each change in sea level, the shape of the Delaware Bay was considerably altered, leading to changes in the tides. Resonance and shallow water dissipation appeared to be the primary mechanisms behind these changes. Results showed that tidal ranges have nearly doubled in the upper Delaware Bay over the past 3000 years, while decreasing in the lower bay by 8%. Tidal range change represents a possible correction to past sea level rise estimates from the geologic record. Scenarios incorporating future sea level predictions primarily showed a small decrease in tidal range, potentially impacting future water levels and tidal sediment transport. Trends modeled were consistent with field measurements of relative change over similar time periods.

Treatise on Geomorphology

Treatise on Geomorphology
Author:
Publisher: Academic Press
Total Pages: 6392
Release: 2013-02-27
Genre: Science
ISBN: 0080885225

The changing focus and approach of geomorphic research suggests that the time is opportune for a summary of the state of discipline. The number of peer-reviewed papers published in geomorphic journals has grown steadily for more than two decades and, more importantly, the diversity of authors with respect to geographic location and disciplinary background (geography, geology, ecology, civil engineering, computer science, geographic information science, and others) has expanded dramatically. As more good minds are drawn to geomorphology, and the breadth of the peer-reviewed literature grows, an effective summary of contemporary geomorphic knowledge becomes increasingly difficult. The fourteen volumes of this Treatise on Geomorphology will provide an important reference for users from undergraduate students looking for term paper topics, to graduate students starting a literature review for their thesis work, and professionals seeking a concise summary of a particular topic. Information on the historical development of diverse topics within geomorphology provides context for ongoing research; discussion of research strategies, equipment, and field methods, laboratory experiments, and numerical simulations reflect the multiple approaches to understanding Earth’s surfaces; and summaries of outstanding research questions highlight future challenges and suggest productive new avenues for research. Our future ability to adapt to geomorphic changes in the critical zone very much hinges upon how well landform scientists comprehend the dynamics of Earth’s diverse surfaces. This Treatise on Geomorphology provides a useful synthesis of the state of the discipline, as well as highlighting productive research directions, that Educators and students/researchers will find useful. Geomorphology has advanced greatly in the last 10 years to become a very interdisciplinary field. Undergraduate students looking for term paper topics, to graduate students starting a literature review for their thesis work, and professionals seeking a concise summary of a particular topic will find the answers they need in this broad reference work which has been designed and written to accommodate their diverse backgrounds and levels of understanding Editor-in-Chief, Prof. J. F. Shroder of the University of Nebraska at Omaha, is past president of the QG&G section of the Geological Society of America and present Trustee of the GSA Foundation, while being well respected in the geomorphology research community and having won numerous awards in the field. A host of noted international geomorphologists have contributed state-of-the-art chapters to the work. Readers can be guaranteed that every chapter in this extensive work has been critically reviewed for consistency and accuracy by the World expert Volume Editors and by the Editor-in-Chief himself No other reference work exists in the area of Geomorphology that offers the breadth and depth of information contained in this 14-volume masterpiece. From the foundations and history of geomorphology through to geomorphological innovations and computer modelling, and the past and future states of landform science, no "stone" has been left unturned!