HR: 14:40h
AN: H33I-05    [Abstracts]
TI: Carbonate Beaches: A Balance Between Biological and Physical Processes
AU: * Nairn, R
EM: rnairn@baird.com
AF: W.F. Baird & Associates Coastal Engineers Ltd., 627 Lyons Lane Suite 200, Oakville, ON L6J 5Z7 Canada
AU: Risk, M
EM: riskmj@mcmaster.ca
AF: School of Geography & Geology McMaster University, 1280 Main Street West, Hamilton, ON L8S 4M1 Canada
AB: Carbonate beaches are a unique example of the interaction between biological processes, creating the sediments, and physical processes, moving and often removing the sediments. On the sediment supply side, carbonate sediments are born, not made. They exist in dynamic equilibrium between production and destruction. Following the creation of carbonate sediment in coral reef and lagoon environments, the sediments are moved shoreward to the beach, transport along the shore and sometimes, eventually lost offshore, often as the result of tropical storms. Comprehensive studies of the balance between the supply and loss of carbonate sediments and beach dynamics have been completed for the islands of Mauritius and Barbados. Field studies and remote sensing (Compact Airborne Spectrometry Imaging) have been applied to develop carbonate sediment production rates for a range of reef and lagoon conditions. Using GIS, these production rates have been integrated to determine sediment supply rates for different segments of the coastline. 1-D and 2-D models of waves, hydrodynamics, sediment transport and morphodynamics were set-up and tested against observed beach response to storm events or a sequence of storm events. These complex deterministic models are not suitable for application over periods of decades. However, it was possible to characterize storm events by the extent of sand loss, and relate this to key descriptive factors for groups of storm events, thereby encapsulating the erosion response. A long-term predictive tool for evaluating beach erosion and accretion response, over a period of several decades, was developed by combining the supply rates for carbonate sediment and the encapsulated representation of the loss rates through physical processes. The ability of this predictive tool was successfully tested against observed long term beach evolution along sections of the coast in Barbados and Mauritius using air photo analysis in GIS for shoreline change over periods of 40 years. The long-term predictive tool for carbonate beach evolution provided valuable support to developing coastal zone management policy and actions to preserve the beaches in their natural form, minimizing the need for artificial nourishment of the beaches. Many models of sediment movement on shorelines are derived from clastic examples, and fit carbonate coastlines only with difficulty. We have combined field surveys of benthic biota, estimates of sediment production from skeletal growth and bioerosion, and sediment destruction by comminution and dissolution with dynamic models of sediment movement in the littoral zone, achieving improved understanding of coastal processes of erosion and deposition. Mauritius is fringed by shallow lagoons, often with luxuriant stands of Acropora. The offshore region is exhumed Pleistocene-all the sediment on the beaches comes from the lagoons. From surveys of coral cover, and estimates of sediment production from reef, sand and hardground areas, we produced dynamic models that faithfully hindcast shoreline dynamics for decades, and allowed identification of regions especially vulnerable to erosion. On the south coast of Barbados, one of the main issues in stabilising and rehabilitation the coastline is the balance between sediment from longshore drift and local sources. By identifying localised areas of characteristic sediment-producers (e.g., the foraminiferan Homotrema rubrum, the green alga Halimeda), we were able to determine the balance between proximal and distal sediment sources. The resulting model hindcasts the coastline through all the major hurricanes of the past 30 years.
DE: 1815 Erosion and sedimentation
DE: 1824 Geomorphology (1625)
SC: Hydrology [H]
MN: 2004 AGU Fall Meeting