Quaternary Coral Reef Systems
History, development processes and controlling factors
By- Lucien Montaggioni, University of Provence, Marseille, France
- Colin Braithwaite, University of Glasgow, Scotland, U.K.
This book presents both state-of-the art knowledge from Recent coral reefs (1.8 million to a few centuries old) gained since the eighties, and introduces geologists, oceanographers and environmentalists to sedimentological and paleoecological studies of an ecosystem encompassing some of the world's richest biodiversity. Scleractinian reefs first appeared about 300 million years ago. Today coral reef systems provide some of the most sensitive gauges of environmental change, expressing the complex interplay of chemical, physical, geological and biological factors.
The topics covered will include the evolutionary history of reef systems and some of the main reef builders since the Cenozoic, the effects of biological and environmental forces on the zonation of reef systems and the distribution of reef organisms and on reef community dynamics through time, changes in the geometry, anatomy and stratigraphy of reef bodies and systems in relation to changes in sea level and tectonics, the distribution patterns of sedimentary (framework or detrital) facies in relation to those of biological communities, the modes and rates of reef accretion (progradation, aggradation versus backstepping; coral growth versus reef growth), the hydrodynamic forces controlling water circulation through reef structures and their relationship to early diagenetic processes, the major diagenetic processes affecting reef bodies through time (replacement and diddolution, dolomitization, phosphatogenesis), and the record of climate change by both individual coral colonies and reef systems over the Quaternary.
Audience
researchers on marine geology, sedimentology, biology and marine environments
Included in series
Developments in Marine Geology
Developments in Marine Geology
Hardbound, 550 Pages
Published: August 2009
Imprint: Elsevier
ISBN: 978-0-444-53247-3
Contents
- CONTENTS PREFACE CHAPTER 1. INTRODUCTION : QUATERNARY CORAL REEFS IN TIME AND SPACE. 1.1.The Reef Phenomenon : definitions and history of discovery and research. 1.2. Types of Coral Reefs. 1.2.1. Fringing Reefs. 1.2.2. Barrier Reefs. 1.2.3. Atolls. 1.2.4. Bank Reefs. 1.3.Geographical distribution of corals and coral reefs 1.4.Modern tropical climate modes. 1.5.Quaternary time-scales. 1.6. Trends in the Quaternary climate dynamics. 1.7.Establishing the Chronology of Quaternary Coral Reefs. 1.7.1.Oxygen stable isotopes. 1.7.2.Uranium-series dating. 1.7.3. Radiocarbon dating. 1.7.4. Aminostratigraphy. 1.7.5.Electron Spin Resonance. 1.7.6. Magnetostratigraphy. 1.7.7. Strontium Ratios. 1.7.8. Other dating methods. 1.8. Methods of obtaining data. 1.8.1. Surface observations. 1.8.2. Pleistocene and Recent reef structures. CHAPTER 2 : PALEOBIOGEOGRAPHY: EVALUATION OF THE INHERITANCE FROM THE TERTIARY. 2.1. Introduction. 2.2. Development patterns of Tertiary coral reefs. 2.2.1. From the end-Cretaceous extinction to the Cenozoic recovery. Extinction patterns. Recovery patterns 2.2.2. Coral and reef diversification in time and space Mechanisms of diversification History of coral reef evolution 2.3. Temporal and spatial variations in coral and calcareous algal diversification. 2.3.1 Reef-building corals. The Western Atlantic-Caribbean Province The Eastern Pacific The Eastern Atlantic The Indo-west Pacific Province Inter-regional comparison 2.3.2. Case study: the historical biogeography of the genus Acropora 2.3.3. Coralline red algae. 2.3.4. Green alga Halimeda 2.4. Conclusions. CHAPTER 3 : STRUCTURE, ZONATION AND DYNAMIC PATTERNS OF CORAL REEF COMMUNITIES. 3.1. Introduction. 3.2. Structure and zonation of modern coral reef communities. 3.2.1. The Western Atlantic-Caribbean Province. 3.2.2. The Indo-Pacific Province. 3.3. Structure and zonation of Quaternary coral reef communities. 3.3.1. The Western Atlantic-Caribbean Province. The Pleistocene. The latest Pleistocene to Holocene. The Recent past. 3.3.2. The Indo-Pacific Province. The Pleistocene. The latest Pleistocene to Holocene. The Recent past. 3.4. Dynamic patterns of coral reef communities. 3.4.1. Reef-community stability. 3.4.2. Reef-community variability. 3.4.3. Reef-community stability versus variability : the time-scale question. 3.5. Conclusions CHAPTER 4: CONTROLS ON THE DEVELOPMENT, DISTRIBUTION AND PRESERVATION OF REEFS. 4.1. Introduction. 4.2. Controls on reef development and distribution. 4.2.1. Biotic controls: the role of recruitment, species saturation, competition, predation, symbiosis and disease. 4.2.2. Abiotic controls: the role of physical and chemical disturbances Substrate availability and refuges. Antecedent topography. Tectonics Dust input Atmospheric CO
2 and aragonite saturation Sea level. 4.3. Controls on reef community preservation: the taphonomic approach. 4. 3.1. The distribution of taphonomic signatures. Identification of reef subenvironments Identification of short-term depositional events. 4.3.2. The taphonomic features as criteria for identifying reef sub-environment and depositional events. The modern and Holocene record. The Pleistocene record. 4.3.3. Taphonomic controls on modern and fossil reef communities. Coral communities Molluscan communities. Foraminiferal assemblages. Echinodermal assemblages.4.4. Conclusions. CHAPTER 5. PATTERNS OF CARBONATE PRODUCTION AND DEPOSITION ON REEFS. 5.2. Patterns of reef carbonate production 5.2.1. Growth and Production rates of reef dwellers. Corals. Coralline algae. Rhodoliths. Halimeda. Molluscs. Benthic foraminifera. Calcareous epibionts. Bioeroders. 5.2.2. Carbonate production at the scale of single reef systems. 5.3. Patterns of reef carbonate deposition 5.3.1. Nature and distribution of components in surficial sediments. Corals. Coralline algae Green algae Halimeda Molluscs. Foraminifera. Other skeletal components. Non-skeletal and compound carbonate grains. Unlithified carbonate mud. Mixed carbonate-siliciclastic sediments. Free-living nodules. Microbialites. 5.3.2. Classification of sediment types. Carbonate rudstone-dominated types. Carbonate grainstone/packstone-dominated types. Carbonate wackestone/mudstone-dominated sediments Mixed carbonate-siliciclastic sediments. 5.3.3. Temporal and spatial shifts in skeletal sediment composition. 5.3.4. Depositional rates of reef carbonate piles. Reef-tract, framework-dominated piles. Reef-tract, detritus-dominated piles. Lagoonal sediment piles. Halimeda mounds. 5.3.5. Control of reef growth styles on rates of deposition. 5.3.6. Control of latitude on rates of deposition. 5. 4. Conclusions. CHAPTER 6 : REEF ANATOMY AND STRATIGRAPHY. 6.1. Introduction. 6.2. Morphology and anatomy of Holocene reefs. 6.2.1. Nature and composition of reef piles. Fore-reef piles. Reef-edge, framework-dominated piles. Reef-edge, detritus-dominated piles. Backreef/lagoonal sediment piles. 6.2.2. Thickness of reef piles. 6.2.3. Conceptual models of reef deposition. 6.3. Structure and Pleistocene stratigraphy of barrier reefs and atolls . 6.3.1. Barrier and Shelf Reefs. Case studies from the Caribbean. Case studies from the Indian Ocean Case studies from the Pacific Ocean. 6.3.2.Atolls.6.4. Stratigraphy of emerged reef terraces. 6.4.1. The Huon Peninsula and Barbados models. 6.4.2. Other reef terraces sequences. 6.4.3.High-carbonate islands. 6.4.4. The question of multi-stage terrace development. 6.5. Stratigraphy of submerged reef terraces and banks. 6.5.1. Case studies from stable areas. 6.5.2. Case studies from subsiding areas. 6.5.3. Case studies from uplifting areas. 6.6. Reef stratigraphy and numerical modelling. 6.7.Conclusions. CHAPTER 7. REEF HYDROGEOLOGY 7.1. Introduction 7.2. External Hydrology: Water characteristics and reef responses to waves and currents 7.2.1.Sea surface temperatures Temperatures and Global limits to reef growth Intratropical temperature variations. Historical changes in temperature limits. 7.2.2. Water Quality and nutrients The modern record The Holocene-Pleistocene record. 7.2.3. Salinity The modern record. The Holocene-Pleistocene record. 7.2.4. Water Turbidity The modern record The Holocene-Pleistocene record. 7.2.5. Hydrodynamics: the effects of tides, currents, waves, tropical storms and tsunamis. Tides and regional currents. Winds anw Waves. Hydrodynamics and Coral Morphology. Storms, Cyclones, Hurricanes and Typhoons Tsunamis. 7.3. Groundwater Hydrology
