Scientists at the University of Exeter in the UK have found that rising sea levels can reshape coastlines and affect human society in unpredictable ways. The impacts of climate change are reported in an article published in Science Advances.
Researchers reconstructed sea level rise to map coasts thousands of years apart and found that the Scilly Archipelago off the southwest coast of Great Britain, which includes 140 islands, appeared to emerge from a single island less than a thousand years ago. According to scientists, the rate at which land disappears depends not only on the rate of sea level rise, but also on the geography of the area.
The data suggest that about 4-5 thousand years ago, the island was quickly submerged under water, although the sea level rise was slow. An area equal to 10 thousand square meters went under water a year. At the same time, the people inhabiting the coast, most likely, adapted to the new landscape, and did not leave it. Perhaps the shallow waters and tidal zones have opened up new opportunities for fishing, shellfish collection and game hunting.
However, the current rate of rise in global mean sea level (about 3.6 millimeters per year) is much higher than what has caused the reorganization of Scilly society in the past. According to the researchers, the reaction of people living on the coast to these changes will be unpredictable. It is unlikely that rising sea levels will create new resources that can support entire communities.
