The high-resolution Holocene sea-level curve for Northwest Germany: global signals, local effects or data-artefacts?

A few years ago, a new relative sea-level curve for northwest Germany was constructed for the entire German North Sea coast It is characterised by several suspected sea-level fluctuations To test this curve for local effects, it was broken down into five relative sea-level curves representative for five coastal sections The relative sea-level curves were corrected for tidal effects and also, a rough first correction for compaction was applied The five curves all differ from the original curve and from each other Most of the suspected sea-level fluctuations in the original curve cannot be supported and are discussed as data-artefacts or local effects Around AD 800-1000 all curves show stagnation or drop of sea-level Thus, this signal is discussed as of over-regional stratigraphic meaning This study is a first step (1) to show that several curves are needed to demonstrate the Holocene sea-level history of such a big area as the entire German North Sea coast and (2) to establish reliable relative sea-level curves for the German North Sea coast Further research is necessary to apply detailed corrections especially with respect to compaction-prone data and to improve, the individual curves