Flux of energy and essential elements through the continental shelf ecosystem. Progress report

Technical Report · Mon Nov 30 04:00:00 EST 1981

DOI:https://doi.org/10.2172/5548446· OSTI ID:5548446

Pomeroy, L. R.

There are three distinct but not mutually exclusive areas of research in this contract, studies of intrusions of the west wall of the Gulf Stream onto the outer continental shelf, studies of the flux of materials across nearshore density fronts, and advances in understanding of the planktonic food web of the continental shelf. Studies of frontal events on the outer and inner continental shelf involve distinctive physical and chemical regimes and have proven to require distinctive biological approaches. The studies of the food web run through our work on both of the frontal regimes, but certain aspects have become subjects in their own right. We have developed a simulation model of the flux of energy through the continental shelf food web which we believe to be more realistic than previous ones of its type. We have examined several of the many roles of dissolved organic compounds in sea water which originate either from release by phytoplankton, digestive processes or metabolites of zooplankton, or extracellular digestion of microorganisms. Methods have been developed under this contract to measure both the chelating capacity of naturally occurring organic materials and the copper concentration in the water. It has been possible to characterize the effects, both toxic and stimulatory, of copper on photosynthesis of naturally occurring phytoplankton populations. It is possible to characterize in considerable detail the course of biological events associated with meanders of the Gulf Stream. We are now in a position to explain the limits to biological productivity of the outer continental shelf of the southeastern US and the reasons why that biological production moves through the food web in the characteristic way that it does.

• Research Organization: Georgia Univ., Athens (USA). Inst. of Ecology
• DOE Contract Number: AS09-76EV00639
• OSTI ID: 5548446
• Report Number(s): DOE/EV/00639-23; ON: DE82007254
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

520100* -- Environment
Aquatic-- Basic Studies-- (-1989)
54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES
AQUATIC ORGANISMS
ATLANTIC OCEAN
BIOLOGICAL MODELS
CHELATES
COASTAL WATERS
COMPLEXES
CONTINENTAL MARGIN
CONTINENTAL SHELF
COPPER
CURRENTS
ECOLOGICAL CONCENTRATION
ELEMENTS
ENERGY TRANSFER
FOOD CHAINS
GULF STREAM
HYDROGEN COMPOUNDS
METALS
NUTRIENTS
OCEANOGRAPHY
ORGANIC MATTER
OXYGEN COMPOUNDS
PRODUCTIVITY
RESEARCH PROGRAMS
SEAS
SEAWATER
SURFACE WATERS
TOXICITY
TRANSITION ELEMENTS
WATER
WATER CURRENTS