Help! Estimates of CO2 uptake ...

[Viviane Testa]

Dear all,
Just a short parallel comment about the Amazon river before I depart to the
field:

The transport of sediments derived from the Amazon river follow the trend
of the North Brazil Current, i.e. northwest. These sediments do not
"spreads downwards along the Brazilian coast". Generally the northeaster
and eastern Brazilian waters are poor in suspended matter, unless one is
looking at regions close to river mouths (generally few kms).

Indeed the coral fauna is poor compared to other regions, e.g. Caribbean,
SE Asia. Turbidity and high levels of suspended sediments are some of the
important aspects to take into account when dealing with coral occurrences.
One has to consider also the hydrological pattern (direction and speed,
etc), the evolution of the Brazilian continental shelf and the distance
from the main foci of genes. The reason why Brazilian waters are poor
related to coral reefs (apart from Abrolhos) is an unsolved problem, as
well as why ooids are not common in these modern environment and why
calcareous algae are so abundant since Tertiary.

Thanks,
	Viviane

.....................................................................
Viviane Testa, Ph.D.
Centro de Pesquisas em Geofísica e Geologia-IGEO
Universidade Federal da Bahia - UFBA
Rua Caetano Moura, 123
40210-340   Salvador, Ba    Brasil

e-mail:	vtesta at cpgg.ufba.br
Tel:    +55.(021)71.332.94.33 / 237.04.08
Fax:   +55.(021)71.247.30.04

http://www.cpgg.ufba.br/lec
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