Impact of environmental parameters on coral reef development and drowning: Forward modelling of the last deglacial reefs from Tahiti (French Polynesia; IODP Expedition #310)

Abstract

The sedimentological and chronological analysis of the last deglacial reef sequences of Tahiti (French Polynesia), drilled during the Integrated Ocean Drilling Program Expedition 310, provide a high‐resolution data set allowing a well‐constrained forward modelling study. This study represents the first attempt to model in three dimensions the coral reef development of Tahiti during the last deglacial sea‐level rise (23 000 to 6000 cal yr bp) using the software dionisos developed by IFP Energies nouvelles. It allows the testing of the reconstructed last deglacial sea‐level curve and the different environmental parameters (for example, wave energy and sediment fluxes) that could have influenced the reef development. These last deglacial reef sequences form two prominent ridges occurring seaward of the living barrier reef that consist of successive submerged reefs. These reefs have been prone to drowning because the window of maximum carbonate production rate is inhibited by high water turbidity (sediment supply from a nearby river), shallow depth of wave action and substrate availability. These factors, combined with rapid sea‐level rise, have driven the growth of retrograding reef pinnacles. Local factors (substratum nature, sediment supply and wave energy) were the main processes that induced the drowning of the inner ridge, whereas interplay of local and global factors (acceleration of the sea‐level rise) was responsible for the drowning of the outer ridge. This particular acceleration of sea‐level rise of 16 m between 14·6 ka and 14 ka bp corresponds to meltwater pulse 1A.

New tools and approaches in carbonate reservoir quality prediction: a case history from the Shu'aiba Formation, Saudi Arabia

“…† Diffusion models: here, the assumption is that the erosion, transport and deposition of sediment can be approximated by a diffusion equation, where sediment is assumed to diffuse from areas of high potential to areas of low potential at rates that are controlled by diffusion coefficients. Examples of this type of model include PHIL (Bowman 1994), Demostrat (Rivenaes 1992), StrataGem and Dionisos (Seard et al 2013). † Heuristic models: these use a variety of algorithms on a cellular basis to relate neighbouring cell processes during deposition.…”

Stratigraphic modelling of platform architecture and carbonate production: a Messinian case study (Sorbas Basin, SE Spain)

“…Some programs focus on carbonate systems (Burgess & Wright, 2003;Paterson et al, 2006;Williams et al, 2011;Barrett & Webster, 2012;Seard et al, 2013) and others on mixed carbonate-siliciclastic systems (Kendall et al, 1991;Quiquerez et al, 2000;Warrlich et al, 2002;Gratac os et al, 2009;Saura et al, 2012). Some programs focus on carbonate systems (Burgess & Wright, 2003;Paterson et al, 2006;Williams et al, 2011;Barrett & Webster, 2012;Seard et al, 2013) and others on mixed carbonate-siliciclastic systems (Kendall et al, 1991;Quiquerez et al, 2000;Warrlich et al, 2002;Gratac os et al, 2009;Saura et al, 2012).…”

Exploring coral reef responses to millennial-scale climatic forcings: insights from the 1-D numerical tool pyReef-Core v1.0

“…SFM involves simulating processes acting over geological timescales and iteratively refining parameters to improve the match between observed and predicted morphologies and stratigraphies. Through this trial-and-error procedure, parameters such as sedimentation and carbonate production rates can be evaluated and quantified, where they ordinarily cannot be directly observed from the fossil record (Dalmasso et al, 2001;Warrlich et al, 2008;Salles et al, 2011;Seard et al, 2013;Huang et al, 2015). In that sense, SFM addresses the shortcomings of qualitative investigation techniques applied to carbonate systems (e.g.…”

“…Early forward models were 1-D (Schwarzacher, 1966) or 2-D in formulation (Bosence and Waltham, 1990;Kendall et al, 1991), but improvements in computing led to the development of more complex, 3-D models (e.g. DIONISOS, Granjeon and Joseph, 1999;Seard et al, 2013 andFUZZIM, Nordlund, 1999).…”