Chapman: Yes, but you want to be certain that your population is uniform. 



Smalley: Actually I am saying this^ to a certain extent for argument's 



sake; we do try to pay careful attention to the taxonomy of the 

 organisms that we study, but it would be so much better if we 

 would try to minimize some of the subtle taxonomic differences 

 and measure the functional aspects of the thing. 



Redfield: I would like to say in regard to Dr. Chapman's remarks, that the 



separation of the forms of Spartinais possibly not as clear here 

 as it is in New England. The high marsh, on which Spartina 

 appears as a dwarf form, doesn't seem to develop here except 

 under exceptional conditions. However, at the north end of the 

 island we saw some Spartina growing very high on some old rem- 

 nants of peat which resembled closely the type of plant we have 

 on the high marsh in New England. 



Odum: It was very interesting that your dead grass curve was still very 



high at the start of the spring and that it decayed all during the 

 summer so that this accounts, maybe, for the higher phosphate 

 in Pomeroy's samples which appeared in the summer time. Re- 

 generation was poor in the winter because of the low temperature 

 and regeneration came about at the time of the high summer temp- 

 eratures. It is the same thing in New England. In the North At- 

 lantic you just have regeneration from the winter mixing, the same 

 time light increases, and you have a spring bloom. 



Smalley: You might remember Dr. Burkholder's discussion yesterday. If 



you add the decomposition time of the grass in the water to the 

 time that it takes the grass to wash out of the miarsh I think you 

 will find that these tend to equalize the amount of detritus in the 

 water the year round. There is a considerable time lag in some 

 of these things we do not show when we put these diagrams on the 

 board. This all looks like it is happening instantaneously. 



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