Tides in the Last Interglacial: insights from notch geometry and palaeo tidal models in Bonaire, Netherland Antilles

doi:10.1038/s41598-017-16285-6

. 2017 Nov 24;7(1):16241.

doi: 10.1038/s41598-017-16285-6.

Tides in the Last Interglacial: insights from notch geometry and palaeo tidal models in Bonaire, Netherland Antilles

Thomas Lorscheid^{1

2}, Thomas Felis³, Paolo Stocchi⁴, J Christina Obert^{5

6}, Denis Scholz⁵, Alessio Rovere^{3

7

8}

Affiliations

¹ MARUM - Center for Marine Environmental Sciences, University of Bremen, Leobener Straße 8, 28359, Bremen, Germany. tlorscheid@marum.de.
² ZMT - Leibniz Centre for Tropical Marine Research, Fahrenheitstraße 6, 28359, Bremen, Germany. tlorscheid@marum.de.
³ MARUM - Center for Marine Environmental Sciences, University of Bremen, Leobener Straße 8, 28359, Bremen, Germany.
⁴ NIOZ - Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research, Department of Coastal Systems, and Utrecht University, P.O. Box 59, 1790 AB, Den Burg, Texel, The Netherlands.
⁵ Institute for Geosciences, Johannes Gutenberg-University Mainz, J.-J.-Becher-Weg 21, 55128, Mainz, Germany.
⁶ Biogeochemistry and Climate Geochemistry Departments, Max Planck Institute for Chemistry, P. O. Box 3060, 55020, Mainz, Germany.
⁷ ZMT - Leibniz Centre for Tropical Marine Research, Fahrenheitstraße 6, 28359, Bremen, Germany.
⁸ Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, Columbia University, 61 Route 9W, Palisades, NY, 10964, United States.

PMID: 29176722
PMCID: PMC5701235
DOI: 10.1038/s41598-017-16285-6

Tides in the Last Interglacial: insights from notch geometry and palaeo tidal models in Bonaire, Netherland Antilles

Thomas Lorscheid et al. Sci Rep. 2017.

. 2017 Nov 24;7(1):16241.

doi: 10.1038/s41598-017-16285-6.

Authors

Thomas Lorscheid^{1

2}, Thomas Felis³, Paolo Stocchi⁴, J Christina Obert^{5

6}, Denis Scholz⁵, Alessio Rovere^{3

7

8}

Affiliations

¹ MARUM - Center for Marine Environmental Sciences, University of Bremen, Leobener Straße 8, 28359, Bremen, Germany. tlorscheid@marum.de.
² ZMT - Leibniz Centre for Tropical Marine Research, Fahrenheitstraße 6, 28359, Bremen, Germany. tlorscheid@marum.de.
³ MARUM - Center for Marine Environmental Sciences, University of Bremen, Leobener Straße 8, 28359, Bremen, Germany.
⁴ NIOZ - Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research, Department of Coastal Systems, and Utrecht University, P.O. Box 59, 1790 AB, Den Burg, Texel, The Netherlands.
⁵ Institute for Geosciences, Johannes Gutenberg-University Mainz, J.-J.-Becher-Weg 21, 55128, Mainz, Germany.
⁶ Biogeochemistry and Climate Geochemistry Departments, Max Planck Institute for Chemistry, P. O. Box 3060, 55020, Mainz, Germany.
⁷ ZMT - Leibniz Centre for Tropical Marine Research, Fahrenheitstraße 6, 28359, Bremen, Germany.
⁸ Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, Columbia University, 61 Route 9W, Palisades, NY, 10964, United States.

PMID: 29176722
PMCID: PMC5701235
DOI: 10.1038/s41598-017-16285-6

Abstract

The study of past sea levels relies largely on the interpretation of sea-level indicators. Palaeo tidal notches are considered as one of the most precise sea-level indicators as their formation is closely tied to the local tidal range. We present geometric measurements of modern and palaeo (Marine Isotope Stage (MIS) 5e) tidal notches on Bonaire (southern Caribbean Sea) and results from two tidal simulations, using the present-day bathymetry and a palaeo-bathymetry. We use these two tools to investigate changes in the tidal range since MIS 5e. Our models show that the tidal range changes most significantly in shallow areas, whereas both, notch geometry and models results, suggest that steeper continental shelves, such as the ones bordering the island of Bonaire, are less affected to changes in tidal range in conditions of MIS 5e sea levels. We use our data and results to discuss the importance of considering changes in tidal range while reconstructing MIS 5e sea level histories, and we remark that it is possible to use hydrodynamic modelling and notch geometry as first-order proxies to assess whether, in a particular area, tidal range might have been different in MIS 5e with respect to today.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

Figures

**Figure 1**
Geology of Bonaire and location of study sites. (a) Geological map of the island of Bonaire (modified from Koomen *et al*.). (b) Location of the sites, where modern and palaeo notches were measured (S1–S6). Elevations indicate the base of the palaeo notch (red point in Fig. 2a,b). The background map represents the high-resolution Digital Elevation Model (DEM, using the TanDEM-X missions) for this area. The orange line indicates the inner margin of the MIS 5e terrace shown in the cross-section of Fig. 2a (The maps have been created with the software ESRI ArcMap 10.4.1 [http://www.arcgis.com], using data from the DCBD online database [http://www.dcbd.nl/document/geological-map-bonaire] and the TanDEM-X missions). This figure is not covered by the CC-BY licence. TanDEM-X data used in panel b is under copyright by the German Aerospace Center (DLR). All rights reserved, used with permission.

**Figure 2**
Description of the geometric measurements and field observations. (a) Cross-section representing the general morphology of the coastline and the shallow-water reef in the “Tolo” area; (b) geometric measures of the notch: Wr – upper notch width, Wf – lower notch width, Df – notch depth at foot, Dr – notch depth at roof. Reported dGPS measurements represent the red point (base of notch); (c) palaeo tidal notch (section S1 in Fig. 1b); (d) MIS 5e fossil reef, from which the *Montastraea* sp. coral has been sampled; (e) modern tidal notch (section S3 in Fig. 1b); (f) shallow-water reef in the “Tolo” area (−3 to −4 m below sea level). (g,h) Geometry of palaeo (g) and modern (h) tidal notches. Dots represent the geometrical nodes represented in b, the bold line and ellipsoid show the mean value and the standard deviations, respectively, for all the measurements. Each line represents one notch measurement (see Methods).

**Figure 3**
Results of modern and palaeo tidal models. (a) Boundary of modelled area (dotted line) and GEBCO_2014 bathymetry used in the MTS simulation. The yellow points indicate the sites where tidal predictions were extracted, with indication of the modelled Great Diurnal Range (in cm) from the modern (MTS) and the palaeo tidal simulations (PTS). Coloured contours represent the maximum palaeo RSL predicted by the GIA model for 119 ka (corresponding to the circle in b). (b) Relative sea-level curves for Bonaire as predicted from the ANICE-SELEN GIA model with the different mantle viscosity profiles and the four ESL scenarios described in Lorscheid *et al*.. We chose the highest predicted sea level from this set of models (circle at ca. 119 ka) and added the gridded RSL prediction to the initial bathymetry. (c) Differences in the Great Diurnal Range between the model results and comparison datasets for all locations shown in (a). Comparison data from tide gauges are only available for Curaçao and La Guaira (The map has been created with the software ESRI ArcMap 10.4.1 [http://www.arcgis.com] using data from the GEBCO_2014 grid for background bathymetry [http://www.gebco.net/]).

**Figure 4**
Comparison of modern tidal simulation and independent tidal datasets. (a) Tidal graph for Curaçao in September 2011. The graph shows the water level and the values for MHHW and MLLW for the MTS output as well as for the comparison datasets (tide gauge data is not referred to MSL). (b–e) Correlation graph for the daily maxima and minima between the MTS output and the observational IHO data for the locations (b) Amuay, (c) Cumaná, (d) Kralendijk and (e) Malecón (notice different scales).

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References

1. V D Plassche O. in Sea-Level Research: a manual for the collection and evaluation of data (ed. van de Plassche, O.) 1–26, 10.1007/978-94-009-4215-8_1 (Springer Netherlands, 1986).
1. Lorscheid T, et al. Paleo sea-level changes and relative sea-level indicators: Precise measurements, indicative meaning and glacial isostatic adjustment perspectives from Mallorca (Western Mediterranean) Palaeogeogr. Palaeoclimatol. Palaeoecol. 2017;473:94–107. doi: 10.1016/j.palaeo.2017.02.028. - DOI
1. Rovere A, et al. The analysis of Last Interglacial (MIS 5e) relative sea-level indicators: Reconstructing sea-level in a warmer world. Earth-Science Rev. 2016;159:404–427. doi: 10.1016/j.earscirev.2016.06.006. - DOI
1. Hibbert FD, et al. Coral indicators of past sea-level change: A global repository of U-series dated benchmarks. Quat. Sci. Rev. 2016;145:1–56. doi: 10.1016/j.quascirev.2016.04.019. - DOI
1. Rovere A, Stocchi P, Vacchi M. Eustatic and Relative Sea Level Changes. Curr. Clim. Chang. Reports. 2016;2:221–231. doi: 10.1007/s40641-016-0045-7. - DOI

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[1] V D Plassche O. in Sea-Level Research: a manual for the collection and evaluation of data (ed. van de Plassche, O.) 1–26, 10.1007/978-94-009-4215-8_1 (Springer Netherlands, 1986).

[2] V D Plassche O. in Sea-Level Research: a manual for the collection and evaluation of data (ed. van de Plassche, O.) 1–26, 10.1007/978-94-009-4215-8_1 (Springer Netherlands, 1986).

[3] Lorscheid T, et al. Paleo sea-level changes and relative sea-level indicators: Precise measurements, indicative meaning and glacial isostatic adjustment perspectives from Mallorca (Western Mediterranean) Palaeogeogr. Palaeoclimatol. Palaeoecol. 2017;473:94–107. doi: 10.1016/j.palaeo.2017.02.028. - DOI

[4] Lorscheid T, et al. Paleo sea-level changes and relative sea-level indicators: Precise measurements, indicative meaning and glacial isostatic adjustment perspectives from Mallorca (Western Mediterranean) Palaeogeogr. Palaeoclimatol. Palaeoecol. 2017;473:94–107. doi: 10.1016/j.palaeo.2017.02.028. - DOI

[5] Rovere A, et al. The analysis of Last Interglacial (MIS 5e) relative sea-level indicators: Reconstructing sea-level in a warmer world. Earth-Science Rev. 2016;159:404–427. doi: 10.1016/j.earscirev.2016.06.006. - DOI

[6] Rovere A, et al. The analysis of Last Interglacial (MIS 5e) relative sea-level indicators: Reconstructing sea-level in a warmer world. Earth-Science Rev. 2016;159:404–427. doi: 10.1016/j.earscirev.2016.06.006. - DOI

[7] Hibbert FD, et al. Coral indicators of past sea-level change: A global repository of U-series dated benchmarks. Quat. Sci. Rev. 2016;145:1–56. doi: 10.1016/j.quascirev.2016.04.019. - DOI

[8] Hibbert FD, et al. Coral indicators of past sea-level change: A global repository of U-series dated benchmarks. Quat. Sci. Rev. 2016;145:1–56. doi: 10.1016/j.quascirev.2016.04.019. - DOI

[9] Rovere A, Stocchi P, Vacchi M. Eustatic and Relative Sea Level Changes. Curr. Clim. Chang. Reports. 2016;2:221–231. doi: 10.1007/s40641-016-0045-7. - DOI

[10] Rovere A, Stocchi P, Vacchi M. Eustatic and Relative Sea Level Changes. Curr. Clim. Chang. Reports. 2016;2:221–231. doi: 10.1007/s40641-016-0045-7. - DOI

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Tides in the Last Interglacial: insights from notch geometry and palaeo tidal models in Bonaire, Netherland Antilles

Affiliations

Tides in the Last Interglacial: insights from notch geometry and palaeo tidal models in Bonaire, Netherland Antilles

Authors

Affiliations

Abstract

Conflict of interest statement

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