LATE HOLOCENE SALT-MARSH DEVELOPMENT UNDER A REGIME OF RAPID RELATIVE-SEA-LEVEL RISE - CHEZZETCOOK INLET, NOVA-SCOTIA - IMPLICATIONS FOR THE INTERPRETATION OF PALAEOMARSH SEQUENCES

Pollen data illustrating a 2000-year record of salt marsh development have been obtained from a variety of outer-estuarine settings in close proximity to the present gravel-dominated coastal barriers at Chezzet cook Inlet, Nova Scotia. The relationship between the biostratigraphic and lithostratigraphic data and relative-sea-level movement is comple x. In the outer estuary, temporal and spatial changes to the floral an d sedimentological composition of the salt marsh reflect principally p rocesses of estuarine and back-barrier sedimentation that resulted in steep environmental gradients and the development of regressive marsh - sediment complexes, despite a relative-sea-level rise of up to 3.8 m m/a during the late Holocene. Our results contrast with those from the inner estuary at Chezzetcook Inlet, where salt marsh has developed on ly over the last 200 years as a result of sediment inwash due to Europ ean land use, and followed a prolonged episode (approx. 5000 years) of tidal flat conditions. This contrast highlights differences in sedime nt input and distribution between the outer and inner estuary.