[Coral-List] Information - Seagrass of the Gulf -
Gene Shinn
eshinn at marine.usf.edu
Mon Oct 6 13:27:42 EDT 2008
Tom, Your description of the "hard sandstone, swept of loose
materials " is consistent with our findings in the Gulf in the mid
and late 1960s. We did sampling where the palm island are now. About
70,000 square kilometers of bottom in the parts of the gulf
shallower than 100 ft of water in the Gulf is being converted to
rock, mostly limestone, and in places sandstone. This hard bottom
supports (or formerly supported) the Persian Gulf pearl industry
because the Pectin sp requires hard bottom and does not populate
sediment. Very little sea grass grows there because there is little
sediment to serve as substrate needed by sea grasses. High salinity
and summer temperature leading to supersaturation of the sea water
with CaCo3 enhances the formation of modern rock. Gene
--
No Rocks, No Water, No Ecosystem (EAS)
------------------------------------ -----------------------------------
E. A. Shinn, Courtesy Professor
University of South Florida
Marine Science Center (room 204)
140 Seventh Avenue South
St. Petersburg, FL 33701
<eshinn at marine.usf.edu>
Tel 727 553-1158----------------------------------
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