Journal
REVIEWS OF GEOPHYSICS
Volume 58, Issue 1, Pages -Publisher
AMER GEOPHYSICAL UNION
DOI: 10.1029/2018RG000636
Keywords
tides; mean sea level; tectonics; flooding; erosion
Categories
Funding
- Natural Environmental Research Council [NE/F014821/1, NE/I030208/1, NE/P009069/1]
- European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme [759677]
- U.S. National Science Foundation, under CAREER Award [OCE-0351837]
- Met Office Hadley Centre Climate Programme - BEIS
- Defra
- Austrian Science Fund (FWF) [P30097-N29]
- German Science Foundation (DFG)
- European Union [690462]
- U.S. National Science Foundation, CAREER Award [1455350]
- National Science Foundation [OCE-1559153]
- NERC [NE/P009069/1, NE/I030208/1, NE/P009158/1] Funding Source: UKRI
- European Research Council (ERC) [759677] Funding Source: European Research Council (ERC)
- Austrian Science Fund (FWF) [P30097] Funding Source: Austrian Science Fund (FWF)
Ask authors/readers for more resources
Scientists and engineers have observed for some time that tidal amplitudes at many locations are shifting considerably due to nonastronomical factors. Here we review comprehensively these important changes in tidal properties, many of which remain poorly understood. Over long geological time scales, tectonic processes drive variations in basin size, depth, and shape and hence the resonant properties of ocean basins. On shorter geological time scales, changes in oceanic tidal properties are dominated by variations in water depth. A growing number of studies have identified widespread, sometimes regionally coherent, positive, and negative trends in tidal constituents and levels during the 19th, 20th, and early 21st centuries. Determining the causes is challenging because a tide measured at a coastal gauge integrates the effects of local, regional, and oceanic changes. Here, we highlight six main factors that can cause changes in measured tidal statistics on local scales and a further eight possible regional/global driving mechanisms. Since only a few studies have combined observations and models, or modeled at a temporal/spatial resolution capable of resolving both ultralocal and large-scale global changes, the individual contributions from local and regional mechanisms remain uncertain. Nonetheless, modeling studies project that sea level rise and climate change will continue to alter tides over the next several centuries, with regionally coherent modes of change caused by alterations to coastal morphology and ice sheet extent. Hence, a better understanding of the causes and consequences of tidal variations is needed to help assess the implications for coastal defense, risk assessment, and ecological change.
Authors
I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.
Reviews
Recommended
No Data Available