Sea-level rise will likely accelerate rock coast cliff retreat rates.

Coastal response to anthropogenic climate change is of central importance to the infrastructure and inhabitants in these areas. Despite being globally ubiquitous, the stability of rock coasts has been largely neglected, and the expected acceleration of cliff erosion following sea-level rise has not been tested with empirical data, until now. We have optimised a coastal evolution model to topographic and cosmogenic radionuclide data to quantify cliff retreat rates for the past 8000 years and forecast rates for the next century.

The age of the opening of the Ice-Free Corridor and implications for the peopling of the Americas.

SignificanceThe Ice-Free Corridor (IFC) has long played a key role in hypotheses about the peopling of the Americas. Earlier assessments of its age suggested that the IFC was available for a Clovis-first migration, but subsequent developments now suggest a pre-Clovis occupation of the Americas that occurred before the opening of the IFC, thus supporting a Pacific coastal migration route instead. However, large uncertainties in existing ages from the IFC cannot preclude its availability as a route for the first migrations.

Pre-development denudation rates for the Great Barrier Reef catchments derived using Be.

Understanding of the pre-development, baseline denudation rates that deliver sediment to the Great Barrier Reef (GBR) has been elusive. Cosmogenic Be in sediment is a useful integrator of denudation rates and sediment yields averaged over large spatial and temporal scales. This study presents Be data from 71 sites across 11 catchments draining to the GBR: representing 80% of the GBR catchment area and provide background sediment yields for the region.

Publisher Correction: Cosmogenic exposure dating reveals limited long-term variability in erosion of a rocky coastline.

An amendment to this paper has been published and can be accessed via a link at the top of the paper.