GULF OF MEXICO 



145 



94 °2:^' W.) was charted by Diotrich (1989, p. 

 117, fig. 33); it was similar to that describod 

 above for the Mabel Taylor station about 100 

 miles farther east. 



The Atlantis occupied a series of nine stations 

 in the northeast Gulf in March and .pril 1942 

 from which salinity data were publisi-ni (Bul- 

 letin Hydrographique, 1950). The same vessel 

 occupied a series of 24 stations in the north- 

 western and central Gulf, January to March 

 1947 (Trask, Phleger. and Stetson, 1947).' 



The research vessel of the Fish and Wildlife 

 Service laboratory at Sarasota, Florida, has 

 occupied stations from Sarasota to Naples and to a 

 distance of 120 miles off shore at appro.ximately 

 monthly intervals since May 1949. Chemical 

 analyses of the water were made for chlorinity, 

 dissolved oxygen, inorganic phosphate, total 

 phosphorus, nitrate, nitrite, and hydrogen ion 

 concentration.^ The phosphorus data have been 

 published (Graham, Amison, and Marvin, 1954). 

 The other data will be published later. ^ 



The Fish and Wildlife Service research vessel 

 Alaska began a series of occanographic cruises in 

 the Gulf of Mexico in 1951, Salinities collected on 

 these cruises are being determined at Texas 

 Agricultural and Mechanical College. They 

 shortly will be made available in a mimeographed 

 form.* 



DISSOLVED OXYGEN 



The first available data on dissolved oxygen 

 content of Gulf of Mexico water seem to be on 

 the results of analyses of water collected at the 

 Dry Tortugas and published by McClendon 

 (1918), 



Oxygen determinations were reported when the 

 Atlantis occupied stations across the Yucatan 

 Channel in May 1933, March 1934, and February 

 1935; across the Havana section of the Florida 

 Straits in March 1934, February and April 1935, 

 August 1938, and May 1939; and in the main part 

 of the Gulf in February to Apnl 1935, The oxy- 

 gen and other data from most of these stations 

 were published in the Bulletin Hydrographique 



' Salinity data from tlifse stations were kindly supplied by Fred B. Phleger 

 on August 15, 1950. They are also available from data cards on file at the 

 Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution and will probably be published in the 

 Bulletin Hydrographique. 



3 Personal communication from L, A. Walford, December 5, 1950. 



' Personal communication from Herbert W. Qraham, January 3, 1952. 



* Temperature-salinity relationships are discussed in the article of D. F. 

 Leipper. Physical Oceanography of the Gulf of Mexico, in this book. pp. 

 119-135. 



in 1934, 1935, and 1936. A graph of the vertical 

 distribution of dissolved oxygen in the center of 

 the Yucatan Channel in 1933 was given by Rake- 

 straw and Smith (1937, p. 9), and a map showing 

 the locations of the stations was published by 

 Vaughan (1937, pi. 11). 



Seiwell summarized the oxygen data from the 

 1933-1935 Atlantis stations in the eastern half of 

 the Gulf with profiles across the Straits of Florida 

 and the Yucatan Channel (Seiwell 1938, figs. 6, 

 15) and gave charts of the horizontal distribution 

 of oxygen at 100, 250, 500, 750, 1,000, 1,500, and 

 2,500 meters (Seiwell 1938, figs. 7, 8, 11, 14, 16, 

 17, 20). Vertical distribution of oxygen at a typ- 

 ical station in the western Gulf (25°40' N., 94°23' 

 W.) was charted by Dietrich (1939, p. 117, fig. 

 33): from about 4.8 cubic centimeters per liter at 

 the surface, it increased slightly to about 4.9 cubic 

 centimeters at 25 meters, then decreased to a 

 minimum of 2.35 cubic centimeters at 300 meters, 

 then increased gradually to about 5.0 cubic cen- 

 timeters at 2,400 meters, and thereafter remained 

 constant to 3,400 meters. Dietrich (1939, p. 120, 

 fig. 35) also presented a chart showing the dis- 

 tribution of minimum oxygen concentration, re- 

 gardless of depth, in all but the southwest part of 

 the Gulf. The lowest oxygen concentrations (be- 

 low 2.5 cc, per liter) were found in the northwest 

 corner; values below 2.7 cc. per liter were ob- 

 served north of the Campeche Bank and off the 

 central west coast of Florida. 



Riley (1938, 1939) reported oxygen concentra- 

 tions in surface and subsurface samples in the 

 summer of 1938 at two stations in the Dry Tor- 

 tugas in depths of 3 and 19 meters, one station in 

 the Florida Straits in the depth of 166 meters, 

 and from two stations in the Havana section of 

 the Florida Straits in May 1939. In presenting 

 a detaded summary of oxygen in the Atlantic 

 Ocean he omitted the Gulf of Mexico (Riley 

 1951). 



Scattered records of oxygen analyses made in 

 connection with studies of animal mortality in- 

 cluding the red tide have been published by 

 Gunter (1942), Galtsoff (1948), Gunter, WUliams, 

 Davis, and Smith (1948), Connell and Cross 

 (1950), 



PHOSPHORUS 



The earliest published record of phosphorus 

 content of Gulf of Mexico water is that of Lipman 



