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Title: Biological processes in the water column of the South Atlantic Bight: Zooplankton responses: (Technical) progress report, June 1987 to July 1988

Technical Report ·
OSTI ID:5515732

We report interdisciplinary efforts to understand interactions of physical, chemical, and biological processes on the southeastern continental shelf of the USA. One effort will determine the physical forces responsible for upwelling on the northeastern Florida and Georgia shelf during summer, trajectories and fate of those upwellings, and major chemical and biological processes therein. Additional experiments will determine the extent of removal of nearshore water towards offshore, and the fate of plankton between Savannah and Cape Fear. We suspect that strong north- to eastward wind stress could displace large volumes of low-salinity nearshore water rapidly across the shelf to the Gulf Stream. A third study quantified the cycling of nitrogen in the estuary and nearshore zone. Our contribution was to determine consumption, excretion and excrementation of nitrogen by abundant metazooplankton during winter and summer. In a fourth study strong southward wind stress during fall maintains low salinity water close to the coast and displaces it southward. We suspect that this nearshore water was transported offshore near Cape Canaveral, or further north across the north Florida shelf when winds would change to northward. 5 refs., 2 figs.

Research Organization:
Skidaway Inst. of Oceanography, Savannah, GA (USA)
DOE Contract Number:
FG09-85ER60354
OSTI ID:
5515732
Report Number(s):
DOE/ER/60354-T3; ON: DE88003941
Resource Relation:
Other Information: Portions of this document are illegible in microfiche products
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English