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

Technical Report · Wed Dec 16 04:00:00 EST 1987

OSTI ID:5515732

Paffenhoefer, G A

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
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

520100 -- Environment
Aquatic-- Basic Studies-- (-1989)
54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES
58 GEOSCIENCES
580500* -- Oceanography-- (1980-1989)
AQUATIC ORGANISMS
ATLANTIC OCEAN
COASTAL WATERS
DISTRIBUTION
DOCUMENT TYPES
FEDERAL REGION IV
FLORIDA
GEORGIA
NITROGEN CYCLE
NORTH AMERICA
OCEANOGRAPHY
PHYTOPLANKTON
PLANKTON
PROGRESS REPORT
SEAS
SOUTH ATLANTIC BIGHT
SPATIAL DISTRIBUTION
SURFACE WATERS
UPWELLING
USA
ZOOPLANKTON