Late Holocene marine transgression and the drowning of a coastal forest: Lessons from the past, Cape Cod, Massachusetts, USA

Abstract Extra-tropical storms in the spring of 2010 swept the New England coastline resulting in significant erosion along South Cape Beach, a barrier system located on Cape Cod, Massachusetts. The erosion revealed 111 subfossil stumps and a preserved peat outcrop. We hypothesize that the stumps represent an ancient Eastern Red cedar, Juniperus virginiana , stand growing in a back-barrier environment and drowned by episodic storm events and moderate rates of sea-level rise. Stumps, bivalves, and organic sediments, were radiocarbon dated using traditional and continuous-flow Atomic Mass Spectroscopy methods. Six sediment cores elucidated subsurface stratigraphy and environmental setting. Subfossil stumps ranged in age from 413 ± 80 to 1239 ± 53 calibrated years before present. We assume that this age represents the time at which the ancient trees were drowned by marine waters. Based on elevation and age, an 826 year rate of submergence was calculated at 0.73 mm/yr with an R 2 value of 0.47. Core stratigraphy, microfossil assemblages, and radiocarbon ages indicate a dynamic barrier environment with frequent overwash and breaching events occurring during the past 500 years. Shoreline change analysis showed that between 1846 and 2008, the shoreline retreated landward by 70 m at a long-term rate of 0.43 m/yr. Future increases in the rate of sea-level rise, coupled with episodic storm events, will lead to the destruction of terrestrial environments at rate orders of magnitude greater than that during the time of the paleoforest.

[1]  M. SusanLindstr.  Submerged Tree Stumps as Indicators of Mid-Holocene Aridity in the Lake Tahoe Basin , 2016 .

[2]  C. J. Lyon,et al.  Rates of Submergence of Coastal New England and Acadia , 1960, Science.

[3]  C. J. Lyon,et al.  Sea-Level and Crustal Movements along the New England-Acadian Shore, 4,500-3,000 B.P. , 1963, The Journal of Geology.

[4]  D. Belknap,et al.  Evolution of the Glaciated Shelf and Coastline of the Northern Gulf of Maine, USA , 2002, Journal of Coastal Research.

[5]  N. Driscoll,et al.  Relative sea-level rise and the development of valley-fill and shallow-water sequences in Nantucket Sound, Massachusetts , 2003 .

[6]  J. Woodruff,et al.  Calibrating a sedimentary record of overwash from Southeastern New England using modeled historic hurricane surges , 2010 .

[7]  S. Leavitt,et al.  A multiproxy environmental investigation of Holocene wood from a submerged conifer forest in Lake Huron, USA , 2006, Quaternary Research.

[8]  W. Gehrels.  Middle and Late Holocene Sea-Level Changes in Eastern Maine Reconstructed from Foraminiferal Saltmarsh Stratigraphy and AMS 14C Dates on Basal Peat , 1999, Quaternary Research.

[9]  M. Stuiver,et al.  Modeling Atmospheric 14C Influences and 14C Ages of Marine Samples to 10,000 BC , 1993, Radiocarbon: An International Journal of Cosmogenic Isotope Research.

[10]  M. Caffee,et al.  Cosmogenic-nuclide ages for New England coastal moraines, Martha's Vineyard and Cape Cod, Massachusetts, USA , 2002 .

[11]  Thomas M. Williams,et al.  Impact of Hurricane Hugo on the South Carolina coastal plain forest , 1991 .

[12]  R. Goldthwait,et al.  Pleistocene geology of western Cape Cod, Massachusetts , 1942 .

[13]  R. Evans,et al.  A discussion of the potential impacts of climate change on the shorelines of the Northeastern USA , 2008 .

[14]  Yong Q. Tian,et al.  Coastal flooding in the Northeastern United States due to climate change , 2008 .

[15]  K. Emanuel.  Increasing destructiveness of tropical cyclones over the past 30 years , 2005, Nature.

[16]  R. N. Oldale,et al.  New radiocarbon dates from the inner Continental Shelf off southeastern Massachusetts and a local sea-level–rise curve for the past 12,000 yr , 1980 .

[17]  B. F. Atwater,et al.  Sudden, probably coseismic submergence of Holocene trees and grass in coastal Washington State , 1991 .

[18]  C. Buck,et al.  IntCal09 and Marine09 Radiocarbon Age Calibration Curves, 0–50,000 Years cal BP , 2009, Radiocarbon.

[19]  B. Horton,et al.  Sedimentary record of storm deposits from Hurricane Ike, Galveston and San Luis Islands, Texas , 2012 .

[20]  C. J. Lyon,et al.  An Attempt to Cross-Date Trees in Drowned Forests , 1934 .

[21]  T. Lacourse,et al.  Paleoecology of late-glacial terrestrial deposits with in situ conifers from the submerged continental shelf of western Canada , 2003, Quaternary Research.

[22]  W. Barnhardt,et al.  Late Quaternary relative sea-level change in the western Gulf of Maine: Evidence for a migrating glacial forebulge , 1995 .

[23]  W. Niering,et al.  Development of a tidal marsh in a New England river valley , 1987 .

[24]  J. Donnelly.  A Revised Late Holocene Sea-Level Record for Northern Massachusetts, USA , 2006 .

[25]  S. Mague.  Retracing the Past: Recovering 19th Century Benchmarks to Measure Shoreline Change Along the Outer Shore of Cape Cod, Massachusetts , 2012 .

[26]  M. Bertness,et al.  Rapid shoreward encroachment of salt marsh cordgrass in response to accelerated sea-level rise , 2001, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America.

[27]  A. Bloom.  Late-Pleistocene fluctuations of sealevel and postglacial crustal rebound in coastal Maine , 1963 .

[28]  Paul D. Asimow,et al.  Temperatures in ambient mantle and plumes: Constraints from basalts, picrites, and komatiites , 2007 .

[29]  K. Emanuel,et al.  Assessing sedimentary records of paleohurricane activity using modeled hurricane climatology , 2008 .

[30]  F. E. Egler,et al.  Vegetation of the Wequetequock‐Pawcatuck Tidal‐Marshes, Connecticut , 1950 .

[31]  D. Belknap,et al.  Paleodeltas and Preservation Potential on a Paraglacial Coast — Evolution of Eastern Penobscot Bay, Maine , 2005 .

[32]  John W. Murray,et al.  Ecology and applications of benthic foraminifera , 2006 .

[33]  K. Haase,et al.  Magma genesis by rifting of oceanic lithosphere above anomalous mantle: Terceira Rift, Azores , 2008 .

[34]  B. L. Howes,et al.  Salt Marsh development studies at Waquoit Bay, Massachusetts: Influence of geomorphology on long-term plant community structure , 1992 .

[35]  J. Donnelly,et al.  Sedimentary evidence of hurricane strikes in western Long Island, New York , 2007 .

[36]  C. McIntyre,et al.  A gas-accepting ion source for Accelerator Mass Spectrometry: Progress and applications , 2013 .

[37]  M. Mann,et al.  Atlantic hurricanes and climate over the past 1,500 years , 2009, Nature.

[38]  Cheryl J. Hapke,et al.  National Assessment of Shoreline Change; historical shoreline change along the New England and Mid-Atlantic coasts , 2011 .

[39]  G. Fader,et al.  Submerged early Holocene coastal and terrestrial landforms on the inner shelves of Atlantic Canada , 2009 .

[40]  G. Giese,et al.  The Late Quaternary Construction of Cape Cod, Massachusetts: A Reconsideration of the W.M. Davis Model , 1996 .

[41]  S. Baker.  Storms, People and Property in Coastal North Carolina , 1978 .

[42]  H. Griffiths,et al.  LATE HOLOCENE SEA-LEVEL CHANGES, EASTERN NEWFOUNDLAND , 2000 .

[43]  I. Buynevich.  Barrier-fronted saltponds (Cape Cod, USA) and limans (NW Black Sea, Ukraine): Comparative morphostratigraphy and response to sea-level rise , 2007 .

[44]  R. N. Oldale.  Cape Cod and the Islands: The Geologic Story , 1992 .

[45]  David E. Tenenbaum,et al.  Coastal Hazard Vulnerability Assessment of Sensitive Historical Sites on Rainsford Island, Boston Harbor, Massachusetts , 2012 .

[46]  A. Gontz,et al.  The Duxbury Sunken Forest—Constraints for Local, Late Holocene Environmental Changes Resulting from Marine Transgression, Duxbury Bay, Eastern Massachusetts, U.S.A. , 2013 .

[47]  R. Fairbanks.  A 17,000-year glacio-eustatic sea level record: influence of glacial melting rates on the Younger Dryas event and deep-ocean circulation , 1989, Nature.

[48]  Martin Vermeer,et al.  Climate related sea-level variations over the past two millennia , 2011, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

[49]  Susan Lindstrom.  Submerged Tree Stumps as Indicators of Mid-Holocene Aridity in the Lake Tahoe Region , 1990 .

[50]  A. Bastos,et al.  Characterization of buried inundated peat on seismic (Chirp) data, inferred from core information , 2007 .

[51]  K. Emery.  A coastal pond : studied by oceanographic methods , 1969 .

[52]  Edward L. Bell.  Cultural Resources on the New England Coast and Continental Shelf: Research, Regulatory, and Ethical Considerations from a Massachusetts Perspective , 2009 .

[53]  W. Conner,et al.  Flooding and salinity effects on growth and survival of four common forested wetland species , 1997, Wetlands Ecology and Management.

[54]  A. Dawson.  Geomorphological effects of tsunami run-up and backwash , 1994 .

[55]  N. V. Pykhov,et al.  Longshore Sediment Transport , 2000 .

[56]  J. Donnelly,et al.  Geological Signatures of Barrier Breaching and Overwash, Southern Massachusetts, USA , 2007 .

[57]  Emery R. Boose,et al.  LANDSCAPE AND REGIONAL IMPACTS OF HURRICANES IN NEW ENGLAND , 2001 .

[58]  D. Foster,et al.  LANDSCAPE AND REGIONAL IMPACTS OF HURRICANES , 2004 .

[59]  T. Webb,,et al.  700 yr sedimentary record of intense hurricane landfalls in southern New England , 2001 .

[60]  Ann E. Mulligan,et al.  Late Pleistocene stratigraphy of Upper Cape Cod and Nantucket Sound, Massachusetts , 2006 .

[61]  Craig J. Brown,et al.  Application of geographic information technologies to historical landscape reconstruction and military terrain analysis of an American Revolution Battlefield: Preservation potential of historic lands in urbanized settings, Boston, Massachusetts, USA , 2013 .

[62]  C. McIntyre,et al.  Design and reality: Continuous-flow accelerator mass spectrometry (CFAMS) , 2011 .

[63]  W. A. Patterson,et al.  The Development of a Tidal Marsh: Upland and Oceanic Influences , 1985 .

[64]  S. Pezeshki,et al.  Effect of soil salinity on stomatal conductance and photosynthesis of green ash (Fraxinuspennsylvanica) , 1986 .

[65]  F. Medioli,et al.  Vertical zonations of marsh foraminifera as accurate indicators of former sea-levels , 1978, Nature.

[66]  L. Sloan,et al.  Sea Level Change Through the Last Glacial Cycle , 2001 .

[67]  J. Clark.  COASTAL FOREST TREE POPULATIONS IN A CHANGING ENVIRONMENT, SOUTHEASTERN LONG ISLAND, NEW YORK' , 1986 .

[68]  A. Long,et al.  Driving mechanisms of coastal change: Peat compaction and the destruction of late Holocene coastal wetlands , 2006 .