Human-altered estuaries now drive stronger tides farther inland

link to open access paper..

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41561-026-01969-4


> a–c, Geographic distribution of the 25 estuaries included in this study across Europe (a), Asia (b) and North America (c). For each estuary, the historical (dark blue line) and modern (light blue line) tidal range profiles are plotted as a function of streamwise distance from the estuary mouth in kilometres. Where present, tidal barriers are indicated by vertical black dashed lines, typically located further inland rather than directly at the estuary mouth. The time periods for the historical and modern datasets are specified in the title of each subplot. N and S denote the northern and southern portions of San Francisco Bay, respectively, with the northern portion continuing into the Sacramento River. d, Attribution of tidal range changes to relative increases in mean high water (MHW) and decreases in mean low water (MLW) for selected tide gauges across the studied estuaries. The dark blue bars represent the historical tidal range, while the light blue bars indicate the modern tidal range. The percentages indicate the contribution of MHW or MLW changes to the total tidal range change, using the mean tide level (MTL) of the historical period as a reference. MTL is shown by vertical lines within the bars; its rate of change (mm yr−1) is shown below each tide gauge name. Tide gauges in d were selected for data quality, vertical datum consistency and inland location to isolate local human influences. The stations are intended as illustrative examples and are not necessarily representative of the entire estuary. Basemap data in a–c from the Global Self-consistent, Hierarchical, High-resolution Geography database (GSHHG; https://www.soest.hawaii.edu/pwessel/gshhg)86.