[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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