High-resolution Holocene Sea-level Change Based on Coral Reefs and Hermatypic Corals

Abstract

The importance of Holocene sea-level change has long been a central theme of Quaternary Science. Holocene sea-level records provide direct evidence of the progress of the melting of the ice sheet during the Holocene. Although the correlation between ice and ocean volumes is incontrovertible , casual links are commonly obscured. Some regional studies of coral-reef sites based on analyses of boring cores have been carried out from reef flat to reef slope at present-day reefs, demonstrating a long-term （1000-10000 years） and large-amplitude （10-100 m） melt-water history. However, short-term （＜ 100 years） and small-scale （＜ 1 m） sea-level changes that detail past sea-level records and play a major role in predicting sea-level fluctuations in the near future are not observed from reef cores. This paper is based principally on a re-examination of sea-level records from the literature and presents the following suggestions to reconstruct high-resolution Holocene sea-level records: （1） Identifying species from boring core samples is effective to reconstruct sea-level changes more precisely during the Holocene. （2） Relative abundance of data for each species is essential to determine position and course of sea-level curve within the envelope of their living depths. （3） The accuracy of reconstructing the sea-level record depends on the distribution pattern of corals; the vertical distribution in a present-day reef obtained from a site close to a given boring site is all that is required. The sea-level curve based on agreement with the above requirement is characterized by smaller fluctuations （± 0.5-± 2.5 m） during the Holocene, thus studies on the high-resolution sea-level record will provide predictions for research on the spatial and temporal histories of sea-level change to Holocene sciences and management of conservation of land in the near future.