XI 



LIST OF FIGURES 



1. Division of energy flux between metazoans and microbial portions of the marine 



food web. 46 



2. Detail of microbial loop. 46 



3. A simple model of organic carbon flux in the sea. 47 



4. Organism-sediment relationships along a hypothetical enrichment gradient. 52 



5. Hypothetical coastal management districts. 58 



6. General locations of core sites along the Florida Keys reef tract. 59 



7. Location of CAMP study region, including Platforms Hidalgo, Harvest, and Hermosa 



and proposed Platform Julius. 62 



8. Diagram of the site-specific, soft bottom sampling array around proposed Platform 



Julius. 63 



9. Location of hard substrate stations around Platform Hidalgo. 64 



10. Freshwater, nutrients, and sediments brought to the shelf effectively set up a series of 

 biological and ecological gradients. 82 



11. Existing data point to the importance of the element nitrogen as the factor limiting 

 phytoplankton growth on the Texas-Louisiana shelf. 83 



12. Location of studies with a soft-bottom benthic component. 91 



13. Conceptual model of the Mississippi River plume as a conveyor belt. 98 



14. Hypotheses about the relationship between variability and impacts. 107 



15. Major physical/biological zones of the northern Gulf continental shelf. 125 



