coastal wetlands on continental shelf waters needs close reexamination on local 

 and regional scales. We now have a pretty good understanding of upwelling 

 processes, but not of outwelling processes. On the basis of our early work at 

 Sapelo, we thought that the salt marsh estuaries exported large quantities of 

 detritus, but now we are not so sure if it's POC, DOC, or living biomass that 

 outwells, if indeed there is a net export at all. There is likely wide regional 

 variation in import and export flows of carbon and nutrients along our 

 coastline, and these need to be quantified if we are to anticipate the fate of 

 pollutants which in the future are going to be introduced offshore (offshore 

 drilling, etc.) as well as inshore. 



viu 



