A centennial-scale sea-level record for the last 450,000 Years

Full appreciation of past climate changes requires sound quantification of associated global ice-volume variations. In the past, this goal was approached by global sea-level reconstructions from two dominant methods. The coral reef method offers accurately dated points, but no continuous time-series. The deep-sea oxygen isotope method yields continuous high-resolution records, but has wide confidence limits. We have pioneered a third independent method, based on the sea-level dependent concentration effect in the Red Sea, and demonstrated its potential to yield continuous records of global sea-level change at centennial resolution with narrow confidence limits. The present project will exploit this potential, to create a detailed, 200y-resolution sea-level record through four glacial cycles. This is essential new information for not only climate science, but also for archaeology and studies of evolution, (molecular) ecology, and (hominid) migration. Results will be investigated alongside the unique high-resolution Antarctic climate series from EPICA ice cores, to assess possible causal relationships. Furthermore, we will focus on defining (the first) high-resolution histories of sea-level variability through interglacial stages 5e and 11, to improve our understanding of potential environmental responses to global warming.