N. Australia Sea Levels Rising 8mm/Yr - Saltwater Intrusion Threatens Dozens Of Bird Species, Parks

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Already in the Top End, saltwater incursion is destroying wetland areas near Kakadu National Park. Rising salinity will only destroy more trees and mangroves, leaving a wasteland of salt and mud. Professor Eric Valentine at Charles Darwin University predicts sea levels in Northern Australia could rise by 70 centimetres in the next century, wreaking devastation further and further inland.

"As the sea level rise occurs, the tidal wedge - that's the amount of water that actually moves upstream driven by the tide - will get further and further inland, and the proportion of salt that it's mixing into the freshwater from the river will become greater and greater, so the salt levels will rise," he said.

Australia's National Tidal Facility has measured water movements for decades. Its research shows sea levels across northern Australia are rising four times faster than the global average. Professor Valentine says scientists do not know why northern Australia is seeing a faster sea level rise.

"From the gauge in Darwin, it looks like it's suggesting about eight millimetres a year, which is two to three times as much as is happening in the south," he said. He says it is a complex phenomenon. "It may have something to do with the way the tidal wave moves around the shallow seas in the north of Australia, and it becomes a problem of trying to understand whether it's a symmetrical wave or an asymmetrical wave," he said.

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http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2007/09/18/2036963.htm?site=darwin