Holocene sea-level evolution in Western Australia

Records of Holocene relative sea-level (RSL) change from Western Australia, a far-field location distal to former polar ice sheets, offer important constraints on ice melt contributions to global mean sea-level (GMSL) change. Despite this, recent efforts to reconstruct RSL have been limited, and the nature of Holocene RSL evolution in Western Australia remains debated in part due to biased comparisons of data. Here we review, re-evaluate, and aggregate RSL data from Western Australia following international standard protocol and explore the potential of sedimentary archives from beach ridge systems and buried transgressive facies of southwestern Australia to produce accurate, high-resolution records of RSL change. We use these data to test several working hypotheses about ice sheet contributions to GMSL change during the Holocene and the influence of local (e.g., non-stationary tides) or higher-frequency (e.g., El Niño Southern Oscillation) drivers of sea-level variability. Improved constraints on the behaviour of relative sea level during the Holocene will provide necessary data for enhancing our understanding of earth rheology, ice sheet dynamics, and natural variability of sea-level changes under warm, interglacial climate states.