Sea levels in Dublin Bay rose at almost double global rate, research shows

Thu, 28 Apr, 2022 - 12:00

Greg Murphy

New research from Maynooth University has shown that sea levels in Dublin Bay rose at approximately double the global rate between 1997 and 2016.

Studies led by the Hamilton Institute and ICARUS Climate Research Centre at the university generated updated figures for the area stretching across eight decades from 1938 to 2016.

While the overall trend shows increases of around 1.1mm per year between 1953 and 2016, sea levels in Dublin Bay rose at a rate of 7mm per year between 1997 and 2016.

“Fluctuations are identified with sea levels rising from 1982 to 1988, before falling from 1989 to 1996, and once again rising from 1997 to 2016 at a rate of 7mm per year," said Amin Shoari Nejad, lead author of the research.

"This recent sea-level rise is faster than expected at approximately double the rate of global sea-level rise.”

Dr Gerard McCarthy, of the ICARUS Climate Research Centre, said "if you look at too short a timeframe, the fluctuations over decades could impact estimates of trends.

"But this research has taken a longer view and what we are most confident about from looking at the stretch of years is the overall rise.”

Researchers at Maynooth, in collaboration with colleagues at University College Cork (UCC) and Dublin City University (DCU), are continuing to explore the reasons behind such fluctuations.

For the study, they compare sea-level records for Dublin Port, along with gauges in Arklow, Howth Harbour as well as international datasets from the UK and France.

“Overall sea level rise is in line with expected trends but large multidecadal variability has led to higher rates of rise in recent years,” said Amin Shoari Nejad.

The article, ‘A newly reconciled data set for identifying sea level rise and variability in Dublin Bay’, published in Ocean Science is available at https://os.copernicus.org/articles/18/511/2022/.