, tolll Rixr Diicklrie 



III 



._-■■■. 



a a a a a n n a a » 



SOI i...n.icPn,i 



ooJ cm 



[MlMnmnm^cmcmcm^cmllMH 



LBLiLiaciEiaaaEiaEi 



[I 



J 



-□__.:■ J a. — 



* K I I > S II D ; 



1984 65 



Figure 4. — River discharge, precipitation, and hydro- 

 logical properties at station 3, Little Manatee River, 

 Fla., January 1964 to January 1965. (Open bars = sur- 

 face; solid bars = bottom.) 



17.9 mg. per cubic meter; in 74 percent of the ob- 

 servations they were below 10 mg. per cubic meter. 



The temporal distribution of chlorophyll "a" 

 was dissimilar between stations (figs. 2-11). The 

 expected peaks during phytoplankton blooms in 

 the spring or fall did not appear at all stations. 

 The production was lowest in Februaiy, March, 

 May, July, and August 1964 and in January 1965. 



Concentrations of chlorophyll "a" at all river 

 stations were higher than the corresponding 

 values in the adjacent Gulf of Mexico (table 1). 

 The extremely high means for surface and bottom 

 at the upstream station in the Peace River were 

 30.2 and 17.8 times greater than the corresponding 

 values from the upper section of Charlotte Harbor. 

 The mean surface concentration of chlorophyll 

 "a" at this river station was comparable to the 

 maximum reported from East Lagoon, Galveston, 

 Tex., and higher than the mean values reported 

 from Alligator Harbor and the Dry Tortugas, Fla. 

 (table 2). 



The mean values of chlorophyll "a" in Tampa 

 Bay tributaries were highest in the Hillsborough 



FLORIDA'S WEST COAST TRIBUTARIES 



III ■■ 



]-i-_- _-- 



:]■ a[l[|[|[]Lla3[l3j[l 



"3 inaaaanciac 



a. c^ dm c^_ ^-m i=l_ E^_ CH CM =_ CM 



_ lOOn""'" 



^ .J nacfcciEicBmnndiCkn 



S10-, l"'|..icPO,f 



S,,J cm =- _«i:q cl C]_i=»cl 

 „J izacBCScJiCa cm UM cm Cm <^ cm 



1 



J d a J d ^ 



I I 



l!B4.6S 



Figure 5. — River discharge, precipitation, and hydro- 

 logical [iroperties at station 4, Manatee River, Fla., 

 January 1964 to January 1965. (Open bars = surface; 

 solid bars= bottom.) 



and Alafia Rivers (table 1). Except for the Hills- 

 borough River, the mean chlorophyll "a" values 

 in Tampa Bay tributaries were similar to those 

 in upper Tampa Bay but lower than those from 

 East Lagoon, Tex., and Alligator Harbor, Fla. 

 (table 2). 



The dissimilarity among stations in jiroduction 

 of chlorophyll "a" may have been caused by a 

 combination of factors. Zein-Eldin (1961) attrib- 

 uted the vertical gradient of chlorophyll "a" in 

 East Lagoon to tidal oscillations and turbulence. 

 The fact that mean concentrations were lower 

 at the river mouths of the Hillsborough, Alafia, 

 and Little Manatee Rivers than in Hillsborough 

 Bay favors this view. 



PRODUCTION OF ORGANIC MATTER 



The rate of organic production in tributaries 

 was estimated from the following equation 

 (Ryther and Yentsch, 1957): 



P=f.X 0X3.7 



IX 



467 



