Biological processes in the water column of the South Atlantic Bight: Phytoplankton response. Final progress report

Abstract

This study addressed shelf-wide processes and nearshore (coastal boundary zone) processes occurring in the southeastern. Coastal boundary zone (CBZ) US continental shelf dynamics involve studies of circulation and of biological and chemical transformations. Continental shelf processes affect the removal of material from the coastal boundary zone into areas where the material no longer interacts with or influences concentrations in the CBZ. The two arbitrarily separate components are, in fact, unified. The CBZ typically extends about 300 km along-shore and about 20 km offshore from its center off Savannah, Georgia, where most runoff occurs. The rates of biological and chemical transformations are controlled by proximity to the bottom and the amounts of fine suspended organic matter originating from rivers and salt marshes. Once material is removed from this zone, either by a long-shelf or cross-shelf advection to regions where the materials are no longer in contact with the bottom, the suite of factors governing the rates of chemical and biological transformations changes. The determination of contrasting rates in these two environments was one of the central focuses of the South Atlantic Bight program.