Summary
The concept of a Holocene high energy window has been
evoked to explain the presence of sedimentary deposits
that appear to have formed under higher wave energy conditions to those operating in the present. Such periods of
higher energy can occur where vertically accreting reefs
lag behind rapidly rising sea levels – thus opening up
the potential for wave energy to propagate across both reef
structures and adjacent shelf environments. Such periods
of higher wave energy have been invoked in a number of
areas where rapid rates of sea-level rise occurred in the
early-mid Holocene, and discussed in relation both to
large shelf systems, and the development of reefs and reef
islands. However, spatial variations in the rate and timing
of the post-glacial marine transgression, and variations in
the depth of the substrates over which flooding occurred,
means that the extent and longevity of any such window
was probably highly variable between regions. Of interest
in the context of near-future environmental change is the
idea that such high energy windows may once again open
up across reefs where the combined effects of environmental and anthropogenic disturbance interact to suppress
reef growth potential (or even to drive reef erosion). Under
such scenarios reefs may not be able to respond to even
modest rises in sea level, thus allowing greater wave
energy transfer across reef flats (see Sheppard et al.,
2005). Where this occurs there will be obvious implications for lagoon and island sediment dynamics and shoreline stability.
Bibliography
Camoin, G. L., Montaggioni, L. F., and Braithwaite, C. J. R., 2004.
Late glacial to post glacial sea levels in the Western Indian
Ocean. Marine Geology, 206, 119–146.
Hopley, D., 1984. The Holocene high energy window on the Central
Great Barrier Reef. In Thom, B. G. (ed.), Coastal Geomorphology in Australia, Academic: New York, pp. 135–150.
Hopley, D., 1994. Continental shelf reef systems. In Carter, R. W. G.,
and Woodroffe, C. D. (eds.), Coastal Evolution: Lake Quaternary
Shoreline Morphodynamics. Cambridge. Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press, pp. 303–340.
Hopley, D., Smithers, S. G., and Parnell, K. E., 2007. The Geomorphology of the Great Barrier reef: Development, Diversity, and
Change. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Kan, H., Hori, N., Kawana, T., Kaigara, T., and Ichikawa, K., 1997.
The evolution of a Holocene fringing reef and island: reefal environmental sequences and sea level change in Tonaki Island, the
central Ryukyus. Atoll Research Bulletin, 443, 1–20.
Kayanne, H., Yamano, H., and Randall, R. H., 2002. Holocene sealevel change and barrier reef formation on an oceanic island, Palau
Islands, western Pacific. Sedimentary Geology, 150, 47–60.
Kench, P. S., McLean, R. F., and Nichol, S. L., 2005. New model of
reef-island evolution: Maldives, Indian Ocean. Geology, 33,
145–148.
Larcombe, P., and Woolfe, K., 1999. Terrigenous sediments as
influences upon Holocene nearshore coral reefs, central Great
Barrier Reef, Australia. Australian Journal of Earth Sciences,
46, 141–154.
Montaggioni, L. F., 2005. History of Indo-Pacific coral reef systems
since the last glaciation: development patterns and controlling
factors. Earth-Science Reviews, 71, 1–75.
Neumann, A. C., 1972. Quaternary sea level history of Bermuda
and the Bahamas. Proceedings of the American Quaternary
Association 2nd National Conference, 41–44.
Neumann, A., and Macintyre, I. G., 1985. Reef response to sea level
rise: keep-up, catch-up or give up. Proceedings of 5th International Coral Reef Congress, Tahiti, 3, 105–110.
Nunn, P. D., 1997. Late Quaternary environmental changes on
Pacific islands: controversy, certainty and conjecture. Journal
of Quaternary Science, 12, 443–450.
Toscano, M., and Macintyre, I. G., 2003. Corrected western Atlantic
sea-level curve for the last 11,000 years based on calibrated 14C
dates from Acropora palmata framework and intertidal mangrove peat. Coral Reefs, 22, 257–270.
Sheppard, C., Dixon, D. J., Gourlay, M., Sheppard, A., and Payet,
R., 2005. Coral mortality increases wave energy reaching shores
protected by reef flats: examples from the Seychelles. Estuarine,
Coastal and Shelf Science, 64, 223–234.
Cross-references
Accommodation Space
Antecedent Platforms
Boulder Beaches
Boulder Zone/Ramparts
Climate Change: Increasing Storm Activity
Postglacial Trangression
Sea Level Change and Its Effect on Reef Growth
HOLOCENE REEFS: THICKNESS AND
CHARACTERISTICS
Eberhard Gischler
Institut fuer Geowissenschaften, Frankfurt am Main,
Germany
Continuous coral reef growth since the last glacial
lowstand of sea level some 18 kyrs BP has been
documented by drilling around the islands of Barbados
(Fairbanks, 1989) and Tahiti (Bard et al., 1990). In the
majority of cases investigated though, shelf reefs started
to accrete not earlier than the Holocene (< 10 kyrs BP).
Holocene reef thickness and accretion-rates exhibit large
variation and can be as high as > 40 m and > 20 m/kyr,
respectively (Dullo, 2005; Montaggioni, 2005). Scoffin
(1992) has summarized how the synchronously operating
processes of framework growth, bioerosion and breakage
(reef destruction), encrustation, loose sediment accumulation, and cementation have resulted in late Quaternary reef
accretion. A number of external factors such as antecedent
topography, water temperature, nutrient concentrations,
and exposure to waves and currents influence Holocene
reef growth; however, sea level appears to exert major
control. Neumann and Macintyre (1985) have elegantly
categorized reef response to postglacial sea-level rise into
keep-up, catch-up, and give-up reef anatomies. The keepup type is characterized by branched acroporids and the
catch-up type by branched and/or massive corals and
shallowing upward facies. The give-up type shows
HOLOCENE REEFS: THICKNESS AND CHARACTERISTICS
561
The concept of a Holocene high energy window has been
evoked to explain the presence of sedimentary deposits
that appear to have formed under higher wave energy conditions to those operating in the present. Such periods of
higher energy can occur where vertically accreting reefs
lag behind rapidly rising sea levels – thus opening up
the potential for wave energy to propagate across both reef
structures and adjacent shelf environments. Such periods
of higher wave energy have been invoked in a number of
areas where rapid rates of sea-level rise occurred in the
early-mid Holocene, and discussed in relation both to
large shelf systems, and the development of reefs and reef
islands. However, spatial variations in the rate and timing
of the post-glacial marine transgression, and variations in
the depth of the substrates over which flooding occurred,
means that the extent and longevity of any such window
was probably highly variable between regions. Of interest
in the context of near-future environmental change is the
idea that such high energy windows may once again open
up across reefs where the combined effects of environmental and anthropogenic disturbance interact to suppress
reef growth potential (or even to drive reef erosion). Under
such scenarios reefs may not be able to respond to even
modest rises in sea level, thus allowing greater wave
energy transfer across reef flats (see Sheppard et al.,
2005). Where this occurs there will be obvious implications for lagoon and island sediment dynamics and shoreline stability.
Bibliography
Camoin, G. L., Montaggioni, L. F., and Braithwaite, C. J. R., 2004.
Late glacial to post glacial sea levels in the Western Indian
Ocean. Marine Geology, 206, 119–146.
Hopley, D., 1984. The Holocene high energy window on the Central
Great Barrier Reef. In Thom, B. G. (ed.), Coastal Geomorphology in Australia, Academic: New York, pp. 135–150.
Hopley, D., 1994. Continental shelf reef systems. In Carter, R. W. G.,
and Woodroffe, C. D. (eds.), Coastal Evolution: Lake Quaternary
Shoreline Morphodynamics. Cambridge. Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press, pp. 303–340.
Hopley, D., Smithers, S. G., and Parnell, K. E., 2007. The Geomorphology of the Great Barrier reef: Development, Diversity, and
Change. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Kan, H., Hori, N., Kawana, T., Kaigara, T., and Ichikawa, K., 1997.
The evolution of a Holocene fringing reef and island: reefal environmental sequences and sea level change in Tonaki Island, the
central Ryukyus. Atoll Research Bulletin, 443, 1–20.
Kayanne, H., Yamano, H., and Randall, R. H., 2002. Holocene sealevel change and barrier reef formation on an oceanic island, Palau
Islands, western Pacific. Sedimentary Geology, 150, 47–60.
Kench, P. S., McLean, R. F., and Nichol, S. L., 2005. New model of
reef-island evolution: Maldives, Indian Ocean. Geology, 33,
145–148.
Larcombe, P., and Woolfe, K., 1999. Terrigenous sediments as
influences upon Holocene nearshore coral reefs, central Great
Barrier Reef, Australia. Australian Journal of Earth Sciences,
46, 141–154.
Montaggioni, L. F., 2005. History of Indo-Pacific coral reef systems
since the last glaciation: development patterns and controlling
factors. Earth-Science Reviews, 71, 1–75.
Neumann, A. C., 1972. Quaternary sea level history of Bermuda
and the Bahamas. Proceedings of the American Quaternary
Association 2nd National Conference, 41–44.
Neumann, A., and Macintyre, I. G., 1985. Reef response to sea level
rise: keep-up, catch-up or give up. Proceedings of 5th International Coral Reef Congress, Tahiti, 3, 105–110.
Nunn, P. D., 1997. Late Quaternary environmental changes on
Pacific islands: controversy, certainty and conjecture. Journal
of Quaternary Science, 12, 443–450.
Toscano, M., and Macintyre, I. G., 2003. Corrected western Atlantic
sea-level curve for the last 11,000 years based on calibrated 14C
dates from Acropora palmata framework and intertidal mangrove peat. Coral Reefs, 22, 257–270.
Sheppard, C., Dixon, D. J., Gourlay, M., Sheppard, A., and Payet,
R., 2005. Coral mortality increases wave energy reaching shores
protected by reef flats: examples from the Seychelles. Estuarine,
Coastal and Shelf Science, 64, 223–234.
Cross-references
Accommodation Space
Antecedent Platforms
Boulder Beaches
Boulder Zone/Ramparts
Climate Change: Increasing Storm Activity
Postglacial Trangression
Sea Level Change and Its Effect on Reef Growth
HOLOCENE REEFS: THICKNESS AND
CHARACTERISTICS
Eberhard Gischler
Institut fuer Geowissenschaften, Frankfurt am Main,
Germany
Continuous coral reef growth since the last glacial
lowstand of sea level some 18 kyrs BP has been
documented by drilling around the islands of Barbados
(Fairbanks, 1989) and Tahiti (Bard et al., 1990). In the
majority of cases investigated though, shelf reefs started
to accrete not earlier than the Holocene (< 10 kyrs BP).
Holocene reef thickness and accretion-rates exhibit large
variation and can be as high as > 40 m and > 20 m/kyr,
respectively (Dullo, 2005; Montaggioni, 2005). Scoffin
(1992) has summarized how the synchronously operating
processes of framework growth, bioerosion and breakage
(reef destruction), encrustation, loose sediment accumulation, and cementation have resulted in late Quaternary reef
accretion. A number of external factors such as antecedent
topography, water temperature, nutrient concentrations,
and exposure to waves and currents influence Holocene
reef growth; however, sea level appears to exert major
control. Neumann and Macintyre (1985) have elegantly
categorized reef response to postglacial sea-level rise into
keep-up, catch-up, and give-up reef anatomies. The keepup type is characterized by branched acroporids and the
catch-up type by branched and/or massive corals and
shallowing upward facies. The give-up type shows
HOLOCENE REEFS: THICKNESS AND CHARACTERISTICS
561